Posted on August 18, 2025
As it nears its 100th birthday, the entirety of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal is set to be dredged for the first time since 2002.
About 90,000 cubic yards of sediment will be removed from between the Freeman Highway bridge and the mouth of Rehoboth Bay, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers release said. The area of the canal between the bridge and Roosevelt Inlet was dredged in 2023 and 2024.
The sediment will be placed in two locations on property owned by the Community of Lewes, on the northern side of the canal, south of Cedar Street.
Dredging is planned to begin in October 2026, but could begin as early as October 2025, the release said. Cottrell Contracting Corporation, a Chesapeake, Virginia company, was awarded a $9.6 million contract to perform the dredging.
The Lewes-Rehoboth Canal was completed in 1927 “as a means of access to the sea for farmers and saw mills along the Indian River and Bay,” the canal’s historical marker says. Today, it’s mostly used for pleasure boating, running through Lewes, Cape Henlopen State Park and Rehoboth Beach.
This map shows the location of upcoming dredging on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal and where the sediment will be placed.
