The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and East Chicago Waterway Management District will hold a public meeting to present this year’s Indiana Harbor and Canal dredging schedule and activities.
This event will take place on Wednesday, June 15, 2016, at City Hall, Annex Building in East Chicago, Indiana.
The current dredging and confined disposal facility (CDF) operation is being conducted by a joint venture between Durocher Marine (a division of Kokosing Construction Company, Inc.) and O’Brien & Gere.
This contract started in 2011 and will end on September 30, 2016. These dredging operations are scheduled to be completed before September 30.
A new dredging and CDF operation contract will then be awarded to continue work from October 1, 2016, to September 30, 2021.
Project Description:
The existing navigation project consists of a harbor channel ranging in depth from 27 to 29 feet LWD and 2 canals with depths of 22 feet.
Contaminated sediment and a lack of a suitable storage place for the sediment lead to the harbor not being dredged from 1972 to 2012.
Since 2012, nearly 1 million cy of sediment has been removed from the waterway and confined, greatly reducing the contaminants that had previously been washing into Lake Michigan and improving the efficiency of deep draft commercial navigation.
Under the project, the entire federal channel will be dredged to congressionially authorized navigation depths, including the removal of sediments in adjacent berthing and docking areas at the local sponsors (non-federal) expense.
The scheme includes the operation and maintenance of the confined disposal facility (CDF) on an USEPA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) site in East Chicago, Indiana.
In addition to providing storage for the dredged sediment, the CDF isolates and contains the existing on-site soil and groundwater contamination in compliance with RCRA requirements.
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