Norfolk Dredging Bags $124.4 Million Charleston Harbor Contract

Norfolk Dredging Co., Chesapeake, Virginia, has won a $124,460,600 firm-fixed-price contract for the next phase of the Charleston harbor dredging project.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), dredging will be performed in Charleston, South Carolina, with an estimated completion date of July 5, 2022.

This contract covers the Lower Harbor to Wando Welch Terminal portion of the project and involves the removal of more than 11 million cubic yards of material.

The Charleston Harbor Post 45 Deepening Project has progressed more quickly than any federal deepening project to date.

In the fall of 2017, the Army Corps’ Charleston District awarded the first two construction contracts of $47 million and $213 million to deepen the Entrance Channel.

The construction started in the Charleston Harbor Entrance Channel in March 2018 and the entire project will take 40-76 months depending on full-funding, dredge availability, weather, and a variety of other factors.

In March 2019, the President’s Fiscal Year 2020 Budget included $138 million for the 52-foot Charleston Harbor Deepening Project.

The work that will be completed under this contract, along with the contracts already underway in the Entrance Channel, will complete a full and useable segment from the ocean to the South Carolina Ports Authority’s Wando Welch Terminal.

USACE has maintained Charleston Harbor for more than 140 years and has dredged it every year during that time to ensure the channel is at the required federal project depth, spending approximately $10-15 million and removing 2-3 million cubic yards of maintenance material from the harbor floor each year.

Construction to deepen the harbor to the now federally authorized 45 foot depth began in 1999 and was completed in 2004.