Galveston District hosts Annual Dredging Meeting

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District (SWG) held its annual Dredging Meeting in Galveston, Texas, November 5, 2024.

SWG holds this yearly meeting to discuss its current and upcoming dredging operations and contracts with various non-federal sponsors and industry leaders.

SWG District Commander Col. Rhett Blackmon welcomed more than 100 representatives from partner agencies and marine industries with some opening remarks and an overview of the districts dredging mission.

Blackmon stressed the significance and difficulty of USACE’s ongoing dredging mission. “Dredging is hard work,” he said. “There are three parts that go into making it happen: the federal; the non-federal; and industry partners.”

Blackmon also touched on the continuous efforts SWG makes in its dredging maintenance cycle to keep all of USACE’s federal navigation projects up and running. “It’s a 20-year plan that we execute one year at a time.”

This routine maintenance is also vital to the Texas and national economy, Blackmon said. Texas ports bring in about $80 billion in revenue to the nation, he continued. “That makes Texas the number one maritime state in the U.S.”

“We’re not done,” Blackmon said, sharing insight on upcoming dredge projects the Galveston District is preparing to do for the new fiscal year. Frequent dredging of the nation’s waterways to provide safe, reliable, efficient, and environmentally sustainable waterborne transportation systems for movement of commerce, national security needs, and recreation, leads to additional dredged material that may be re-utilized beneficially, opening potential new partnerships through SWG’s Beneficial Use of Dredge Material (BUDM) program, he continued.

Several SWG operations managers and project managers then briefed the attendees on more than 20 operations and maintenance and new-work contracts set to come out in 2025. This includes new work on the Houston Ship Channel and Sabine-Neches Waterway Channel Improvement projects and maintenance on several crucial waterways, such as the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and the Galveston Harbor and Channel.