The Valhalla’s huge “clamshell” scoops into the channel bottom, hauls up a dripping load of sediment, swings it over the water’s surface to a receiving scow and drops it in.
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the Manson Co. vessel is hard at work dredging the Port of Long Beach’s main channel and turning basin area. The deepening of the harbor is an important part of a $40 million dredging project in and around the Port of Long Beach.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Port have teamed up to plan and execute the project, which will improve navigation in the harbor and generate about 180 jobs a year during its two-year duration. The project has local and regional impacts, said Port Executive Director Richard D. Steinke. “By working together with the Army Corps, we are improving our facilities, which will in turn strengthen our ability to compete for business and create even more jobs in Southern California.”
In addition to Main Channel work that will provide safer navigation for cargo ships and oil tankers, the project includes the dredging of the Catalina ferry landing for the City of Long Beach and the cleanup of legacy contamination in sediments in the Terminal Island West Basin, which was once the site of a U.S. Navy facility.
The dredged-up sediment from all points is being reused within the Port. It will help fill in a slip at Pier G to create additional land as part of a terminal modernization project there.
The dredging is being funded by the Port and the federal government, which provided $4.8 million.
( polb )
[mappress]
Source: polb, July 29, 2010