Posted on June 7, 2023
Milford Harbor will be dredged at a few key points this fall to keep its boats from grounding in shallows as part of a project likely to cost about $5.6 million and funded almost entirely by the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal.
The US Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to go out to bid on the project with a goal of dredging the Federal Channel and Federal Anchorage sections of the harbor in October, said Justin Rosen, the city’s chief of staff.
“It has not gone out to bid yet through the Army Corps, so we don’t know what the entire project will cost. It’s my assumption that the city could be responsible for as much as $600,000 of the project,” Rosen said.
Deeper-draft boats occasionally ground in those two sections, which have not been dredged of the silt and other elements that naturally accrue in the harbor since 1988. The grounding usually occurs when the tides change, Rosen said.
The federal $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2022, which President Joe Biden signed into law in Nov. 15, 2021, will fund about $5 million of the project, which will likely be the majority of the cost, Rosen said. Then-Mayor Ben Blake announced that the city had been awarded the grant during a press conference at the harbor in February.
The work will include the removal and replacement of the harbor’s mooring tackle, which includes the removal and replacement of 63 Helix anchors and 140 Seaflex downlines to facilitate dredging of the Federal Channel and Federal Anchorage.
The act has among its goals the rebuilding of US roads, bridges and rails; expanded access to clean drinking water and high-speed Internet; and to invest in community projects and communities “that have too often been left behind,” according to a White House Fact Sheet on the act.
“The legislation will help ease inflationary pressures and strengthen supply chains by making long overdue improvements for our nation’s ports, airports, rail, and roads,” the sheet states. “It will drive the creation of good-paying union jobs and grow the economy sustainably and equitably so that everyone gets ahead for decades to come.”
It and the president’s Build Back Framework are expected to add an average 1.5 million jobs per year for the next 10 years, according to the facts sheet.
The harbor is one of the city’s economic motors. It is home to three commercial marinas: Milford Yacht Club; city-owned Lisman Landing; the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service Connecticut Aquaculture Lab; and approximately 100 private docks.
The harbor has among its ships or boats 11 government owned vessels. They include homeland security vessels, two fire boats and two police boats that serve the central Connecticut region; and a city rescue/dive team, Rosen said.
The harbor features about 250 dry summer storage spaces, 1,313 recreational docks and 19 commercial vessels. The city issues 500 boat-ramp stickers annually, and the regular flow of seasonal transient visitors helps downtown businesses, Rosen said.
The work will cut the harbor’s season short by a week or so.
