Wicomico dredging underway: Look out, dredge material coming through

The latest Wicomico River dredging program is underway, the Baltimore District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said. USACE has just released this amazing photo from the Deal Island dredge area, an important part of Baltimore District’s maintenance dredging efforts for the federal navigation channel in Wicomico County, Maryland.

“When Wicomico River dredge material is hydraulically pumped directly from the dredge to Deal Island, it helps restore eroding wetlands and supports one of the largest concentrations in the state of herons, egrets, and ibis, and also hosts one of Maryland’s only breeding population of black-necked stilts,” said USACE.

Maintenance dredging for the Lower Wicomico River began in October and is expected to continue through December.

This project contributes to protecting environmental habitat, improving water quality and expanding public access within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The operations and maintenance project provides for a channel of 14 feet deep and 150 feet wide from the Chesapeake Bay to Salisbury, including 100-foot-wide channels with turning basins that are all 14 feet deep in the north and south prongs, and a 60-foot-wide channel 6 feet deep from deep water in the river to Webster Cove; a T-shaped basin in a cove that is 100 feet wide and 400 feet long, and an extension of a basin that is 200 feet long and 100 feet wide on each side.