Posted on June 29, 2017
By Jack Tomczuk, Press of Atlantic City
City Council on Thursday approved a pair of resolutions authorizing the municipality to seek contractors for back bay dredging projects scheduled to begin in September.
One contract is for hydraulic dredging of the Carnival Bayou area and the other is for mechanical dredging of Sunny Harbor and South Harbor, according to a memo drafted by Anchor QEA, a company working with ACT Engineering on the city’s dredging plan.
Silt build-up is an issue in the city’s back bay because shallow water poses a threat to boats and other watercraft travelling the channels and lagoons. Earlier this month, Eric Rosina of ACT Engineering said at a town hall meeting that 60,000 cubic yards of new silt builds up each year.
More than 26,000 cubic yards of silt is set to be removed as part of the contracts, the memo said.
Dredged material from the Carnival Bayou project will be taken via pipeline to Site 83, which is near Roosevelt Boulevard, according to the memo. Material from the other project will be taken to the Route 52 confined disposal facility before being transported to an offsite receiving facility for final placement, it stated.
“Work to empty and repair Site 83 off Roosevelt Boulevard to make room for new bayside dredging projects continues to see good progress, and we’re on schedule to dredge Carnival Bayou, Sunny Harbor and South Harbor starting in September,” Mayor Jay Gillian said in his weekly address to residents.
In-water work on both projects is supposed to be completed by Nov. 30, according to the memo.
A bid notification for both contracts is anticipated to be issued by July 5 and officials will meet with interested bidders July 22, the memo states. Both projects will be open for bid Aug. 10 and the contracts are expected to be awarded at the Aug. 22 City Council meeting.
An alternate bidding item concerning mechanical dredging near the Bay Bridge Condominiums is also mentioned in the memo about the Sunny Harbor and South Harbor contract.
“The Bay Bridge Condominium dredging area is not a currently authorized dredging area under the project permits, and may only be awarded pending a change in permit status,” the memo stated.
That project, if the right permits were acquired, would remove 2,790 cubic yards of silt from the area around the condo complex on 9th Street, according to the memo.
The city filed an application in December with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to dredge all of its waterways, including those that are privately-owned, from the north end to Corson’s Inlet. If approved, the permit will be good for 10 years and allow dredging from July 1 through Nov. 30 each year.
In his weekly address, Gillian referred residents who are interested in dredging their private boat slips to a new page on the city’s website.
The page says the city expects to have the island-wide permit by the end of the year. It also estimates the cost of dredging a boat slip and directs residents to dredging resources. For more information, visit http://www.ocnj.us/dredgingfaq/.
Source: ShoreNewsToday
