Posted on April 22, 2021
Project Name:
Okeechobee Waterway, Reach 3 & 4 on the St. Lucie River, Maintenance Dredging 8 Foot (2.5m depth) Project Martin County, Florida
Project Scope :
The work includes dredging shoal material from Okeechobee Waterway in Martin County, Florida to an 8-foot depth plus 1-foot allowable over depth. The base work consists of dredge areas 1 and 2 as shown on the drawings. The option consists of dredge areas 3 through 8 as shown on the drawings. All dredged material will be placed in an existing Dredged Managed Material Area (DMMA), O-7, located approximately 9.0 miles from the eastern end of Reach 3. Other work includes clearing vegetation for the pipeline corridor. Incidental related work also includes turbidity monitoring, endangered species monitoring, and incidental related work.
Locations: See Map below:
The OWW is a main through fare that allows commercial and recreational boat traffic to traverse the state of Florida east to west crossing Lake Okeechobee.
The OWW is a major lifeline and it is important that navigation channels be open and allow traffic to safely pass
The USACE and the Florida Inland Navigation District along with Dredging and Marine Contractors (Cavache) play a major role in maintaining the OWW.
This USACE Project Covache is working on is valued at $3.14mm for the removal around 65,000 yd3 (50,000m3).
The project has many challenges like pumping distance, boat traffic, trash and debris, ETC.
Wes Gammons, Cavaches’ Lead on the project, noted:
“This section of the OWW has not been dredged for some time. Therefore dealing with trash and debris has been overwhelming to say the least. We have encountered everything from boating debris, car tires, to hunks of steel, you name it—we are finding it. However, we are advancing forward every day. Not only are we dredging problem areas but cleaning up the waterway in the process. Doing the right thing is not always easy, but it’s right, and that’s what matters”
The total length of the project is 55,000lf of which 38,000lf is being dredged hydraulicly. The furthest reach is being doing mechanically.
Cavache is using their 16” cutter dredge, a Series 1170 Ellicott, the Maya Caelyn, along with multiple booster pumps to complete the work.
The Material being dredged is being pumped through HPDE pipeline into DMMA O-7.
DMMA O-7 is a F.I.N.D. (Florida Inland Navigational District) owned site.
The DMMA is located on an 80 acre parcel adjacent to the OWW in close proximity to Port Saint Lucie Locks in Stuart Florida. Of those 80 acres 32 are used to place material.
The Notice to proceed for the work was given on 12/22/20 and the contract is expected to be completed ahead of the 7/31/21 deadline.
Cavache Project Manager Wes Gammons told DredgeWire:
“Despite the hurdles of multiple shut-downs from unforeseen underwater debris, continual public and commercial vessel traffic, Cavache’s team has maintained a positive attitude throughout the project. We focused on safety, organization, and Team Work, which ultimately has kept us on schedule , with 12000 man-hours recorded to date, with zero injuries.”
Besides the dredging Cavache has been tasked with ensuring all environmental aspects of the project are being monitored.
Some of the environmental work included: Water quality, Bird monitoring, Snake Monitoring, Endangered species monitoring, and Gopher tortoise monitoring. Cavache understands that the environmental constraints are there to protect our planet and said they are “committed to do everything in their power to help lead the charge.”
“The Hog Job”
Wes Gammons said “Every job has some interesting things to remember. This job will always be remembered as “The Hog Job.” There is an abundance of wildlife including feral hogs on the site, and they continuously rutt up the roadways and shoreside work areas.
Cavache emphasized to DredgeWire that they understand that the environmental constraints are there to protect our planet, and that they do everything in their power to help lead the charge.
