Jacksonville, Fla. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District announces the St. Lucie Inlet maintenance dredging contract award of $5,432,400 to Norfolk Dredging of Chesapeake, Virginia.
The work is in response to impacts from Hurricane Matthews’s passage in 2016, and is federally funded with Hurricane Matthew Supplemental Operations and Maintenance funds. The Corps awarded the contract Aug. 16.
The project consists of dredging shoal material from the St. Lucie Inlet to return the channel to its authorized depths. This includes the inlet’s Cut 1 and the impoundment basin. Cut‐1 depths will vary from 16 to 18 feet plus 2 feet of allowable over-depth, and the impoundment basin to 16 feet plus 2 feet of allowable over-depth.
The channel maintenance will remove roughly 384,000 cubic yards of material. Norfolk Dredging will place all material in a permitted disposal area located about 10.6 nautical miles offshore of Jupiter Island, southeast of the inlet. The sand deposited in the disposal area is permitted for use as a source to renourish the beaches of Jupiter Island in the future. Work in the contract also includes turbidity monitoring, endangered species monitoring, and more.
The Corps anticipates the contractor will start construction in early September and will complete the total maintenance contract within 210 days. During dredging operations, the Corps asks boaters to use extra caution while traveling in the Inlet. The dredge will operate 24 hours daily unless there are unforeseen delays such as weather or mechanical problems.
Jacksonville District has relocated millions of cubic yards of sand from Florida ports, inlets and waterways as part of the navigation program. This work provides significant aid to navigation and, when suitable, it also benefits local beaches with sand nourishment, providing important storm damage protection and restoring beach wildlife habitat.
Release no. 17-035