Posted on March 2, 2016
By Alex Elvin, Vineyard Gazette
The dredging of the Menemsha channel isn’t the first Army Corps of Engineers project in the region to suffer from delays and complications since the federal government approved more than $50 billion in recovery aid after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
More than $5 billion went to the Army Corps, which manages many of the channels, jetties and seawalls that were especially hard hit by the storm. Most of the 152 projects in the Corps’ North Atlantic division that were tagged for funding have been completed, but a number have yet to start, and some are still under review.
The Menemsha channel was scheduled to be dredged in late 2014, but a water quality permit wasn’t obtained in time and work was put off to last October. The contractor, J-Way Inc. of Avon, Ohio, didn’t show up until December, and the project missed a Jan. 31 deadline that marked the winter flounder season. Work will likely resume next October, the soonest that dredging is allowed again in the channel.
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