The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District has received funding to conduct maintenance dredging at the Channel to Port Mansfield navigation project.
This navigation project consists of a 15-ft deep (Low Water Datum) by 125-ft wide by 12.9 mile long shallow-draft channel, which extends from the Gulf of Mexico; through a jetted inlet to a turning basin at Port Mansfield, Texas.
The Channel was not included within the President’s budget for Fiscal Year 2019, however congress has provided supplemental funding to be used for maintenance dredging in Fiscal Year 2019.
Since 2000, the Channel has been dredged through 5 separate contracts, typically utilizing supplemental funding set aside in response to coastal storm impacts.
This supplemental funding will be used, through multiple contracts, to dredge the Channel to Port Mansfield to its authorized depth. The first contract will provide an 8 foot channel from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) Intersection to the Port Mansfield main basin to relieve critical shoaling and is anticipated to begin as early as fall of 2018, reported the Corps.
“ The additional contracts will include dredging the entrance and main channels of Channel to Port Mansfield to authorized dimensions in conjunction with environmental windows. ” said Ashton Burgin, operations manager at USACE Galveston District. “ This work will likely commence in fall of 2019 and conclude by March 2020, or sooner .”