USACE, Navy collaborate in experimental dredging at Little Lake Harbor

The USACE Detroit District and Engineer Research and Development Center in partnership with the U.S. Navy removed over 25,000 cubic yards of material from Little Lake Harbor in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this fall.  

Little Lake Harbor, designated as a harbor of refuge, requires annual maintenance dredging. The harbor had severe shoaling and emergency dredging was completed in 2023.  

This year, a unique opportunity with the Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and the U.S. Navy arose.  

“We were working with ERDC on redesigning the federal structures at Little Lake Harbor and ERDC was working with the Navy on experimental training,” said Soo Project Office, St. Marys River Section Chief, Justin Proulx. “ERDC brought the two of us together to train the Navy on opening harbors and dredging the Detroit District’s shoaled in Little Lake Harbor.” 

“We are really good at doing horizontal and vertical construction but looking ahead, the fleet needs waterfront support or port damage repairs in potential future operations to come,” said U.S. Naval Mobil Construction Battalion 4 Chief Petty Officer, Daniel Sullivan. “The Naval Construction Force is looking at waterfront construction as a very high priority and all this experimental training that we are doing or opportunities like working with ERDC doing dredging is going to help speed along the capabilities that our higher headquarters needs from us.”  

“We were working with the Navy on experimental dredging, they no longer had the knowledge set or the equipment,” added ERDC Research Physicist, Thad Pratt.

“We had a big need to train the Seabees and provide a new cost-effective way to dredge the smaller harbors within the Corps of Engineers. This project brought the two of them together. It is not very cost effective to mobilize a large dredging contractor to dredge a small harbor and remove less than 50,000 cubic yards of material.”

“The Detroit District had most of the equipment needed to dredge the harbor. We researched and designed a six-inch pump with a rotating head in place of the bucket on their Crane Barge Harvey to complete most of the dredging. The project was a big success.”  

Little Lake Harbor still requires annual maintenance dredging.

Coastal Engineers with the Detroit District said that they plan to survey and collect data from Little Lake Harbor to determine the effect of waves and how the federal structures in the harbor should be designed for shoaling impacts.