JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Aug. 20, 2021) – The Jacksonville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will begin dredging sections of the Intracoastal Waterway (IWW) in St. Johns County, Florida, within the Palm Valley North Reach beginning in the October 2021 timeframe and finishing in May 2022.
An operation and maintenance (O&M) dredging contract in the amount of $7.8 million was awarded Aug. 20, 2021, to Ahtna Marine & Construction Company, LLC, of Pompano Beach, Florida, to address problematic shoaling within this reach of the IWW. Mobilization activities will start as early as September 2021, with dredging operations beginning soon thereafter. The contract is being funded with a combination of federal funds and contributed funds form the Florida Inland Navigation District.
The Palm Valley North Reach will be a large O&M dredging project, with 641,500 cubic yards of material being removed from the channel. The material will be placed in the existing Dredge Material Management Area (DMMA DU-9), located in Duval County at the north end of the project area. Dredging will begin at the Duval-St. Johns County line and continue southward to the Palm Valley Bridge.
Operations will be conducted in 12-hour shifts, seven days a week until completion, but could be extended to 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week operations depending on presently unforeseeable scheduling requirements.
The Corps requests boaters and residents to exercise heightened caution in the work areas on the IWW. Navigators should watch for the marked floating pipeline within the IWW, and for the working dredge and transport barge while operations are under way.
For more information on Jacksonville District projects and operations, please visit www.saj.usace.army.mil.
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Release no. 21-059