Posted on August 3, 2022
The tug Matt Allen and dredge Barry J arrived late Saturday in Manistee to conduct dredging operations in Manistee Harbor.
Dredging in the harbor is expected to last over the next three weeks, according to Manistee Harbormaster Jeff Mikula.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to dredge the outer harbor to a project depth of 25 feet, extending 1,600 feet to the outer end of the south pier.
By Monday morning, several thousand feet of pipe had been assembled from the dredge to the beach.
The Manistee River Channel is set to be dredged to a depth of 23 feet, from the inner end of the north revetment to Manistee Lake — a distance of about 6,400 feet.
The U.S. Army Corps has updated their discharge permit to “allow the placement of material to the north of the public beach,” according to Manistee Harbor Commission meeting minutes from June.
“I have requested spoils be placed north of Fifth Ave(nue) Beach to assist in replacing soil eroded by the previous high lake levels,” Mikula told the News Advocate.
Previously the U.S. Army Corps had placed sand south of the south breakwater, according to Mikula in a January harbor commission meeting.
About 40,000 to 70,000 cubic yards of material must be dredged on a 2 to 3 year cycle, according to U.S. Army Corps documents from August 2021. The Corps most recently performed maintenance dredging in 2018 and dredging to remediate contaminations was conducted in July 2020.
A second project is expected to begin on the channel once the dredging is complete, Mikula said. The U.S. Army Corps has contracted for repairs to the south breakwater.
During this time, Mikula said the breakwater and adjacent parking lot is expected to be closed until “sometime in October.” That project is over $1.9 million.
