Firm will remove three million cubic yards of material through the use of a hydraulic pipeline dredge.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, has awarded a contract to Orion Marine Construction Inc. for $8,876,000 for maintenance dredging of the Matagorda Ship Channel. The project will include a critically shoaled area of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway near the entrance channel in Matagorda County, Texas.
Orion Marine is required to remove about three million cubic yards of material between the Matagorda Peninsula and Point Comfort docks portion of the channel using a hydraulic pipeline dredge. The project was slated to begin in January and be complete by April 2013.
“The Matagorda Ship Channel supports the Port of Port Lavaca-Point Comfort, an important economic catalyst for Texas that serves chemical manufacturing industries along the Gulf Coast,” says Alicia Rea, an operations manager with the USACE Galveston District’s Navigation Branch. “Dredging of the ship channel will allow the channel to remain open for navigation and allow commerce including chemicals, petrochemicals, aluminum ore and agricultural fertilizer to be imported and exported.”