LOS ANGELES – By year’s end, Newport Harbor will hold 210,000 fewer cubic yards of material, thanks to a $3.6 million contribution from the City of Newport Beach that allowed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a contract modification for additional dredging in the harbor.
The city provided the funds to Corps in order to add work to a $6.3 million dredging contract begun in May, which removed 348,000 cubic yards of material from the harbor’s federal channel.
The contract and its modification provide significant maintenance dredging of the harbor for the first time in more than 70 years, re-establishing safe navigation for nearly 12,000 first responder, commercial and recreational vessels that call the port home.
While the base contract allowed for the removal of a significant amount of material, it was not sufficient to dredge the entire width of the channel. The additional funding provides that.
“This work will bring the federal channel down to a uniform controlling depth,” said Scott John, a project manager with the Corps’ Los Angeles District. “It will improve water quality through increased tidal flushing, eliminate dangerous high spots throughout the harbor and most importantly improve navigation. We couldn’t have done the additional work without the funds from the city.”
The contractor, R.E. Staite Engineering, transported about 110,000 cubic yards of the material from the base contract to Port of Long Beach for a development project. The remainder went to an offshore disposal site, where the material from additional work, begun Sept. 22, will also be placed.