Posted on February 20, 2018
By Larry Robinson, Watertown Daily Times
The anticipated cost of dredging the Port of Ogdensburg and extending the facility’s marine docking terminal has risen by more than $2 million following a decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to have the upgrades put out to public bid as two separate projects instead of one.
Officials at the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority had been hoping that the dredging and terminal expansion project — already years in various stages of planning — would involve a single marine construction entity.
The last time the St. Lawrence River was dredged at the Port of Ogdensburg was in 1984. The current plan calls for deepening the existing channel by approximately 27 feet. Simultaneously, OBPA officials hoped to expand the docking facility by 500 feet to allow more than one ship at a time to unload cargo.
But at a meeting of the OBPA’s Port Committee this week, officials were told that the Army Corps of Engineers has now recommended that the expansion project be “decoupled,” meaning the terminal work and the dredging work will need to be put out for bids separately.
It’s a decision expected to add millions to the project’s price tag and push back the tentative timetable for completion.
Wade Davis, executive director of the OBPA, said that as recently as 2016 the port’s dredging and terminal upgrades were widely considered one joint project that would carry an approximate price tag of $18.2 million. Financing included a $10 million state grant, $2.7 million in federal funding and a $5.5 million commitment on the part of the OBPA and other financial sources.
However, by separating the project into two, Mr. Davis said, the OBPA’s financial obligation will spike.
“Now with the decoupling, we are looking at two separate projects, but when you add them together it is a total of 20.4 million dollars,” Mr. Davis said.
The difference means OPBA’s investment in the project has climbed from $5.5 million to nearly $8 million, according to Mr. Davis.
“This is going to be a very important project to the regional economy, and also to the future of the Port of Ogdensburg,” Mr. Davis said. “Seven-point-seven million dollars is a huge lift of the authority to try and put forth on this.”
He said the authority received the new information regarding the project on Thursday, and immediately began reaching out to state and federal officials.
“As a result of the decoupling and the change in the budget, we have reached out and briefed both U.S. senators this afternoon, our congresswoman, and also the governor’s office on this issue. Because this goes far beyond the Ogdensburg-only impact, and the funding sources need to come from far beyond Ogdensburg as well.”
One of the reasons for the decision to treat the terminal expansion and port dredging as two unique projects stems from the discovery of arsenic-tainted soil in the area. The soil, which runs to a depth of about 6 feet and is estimated to encompass between 2,000 and 3,000 cubic yards, will need to be handled separately from other soil and sediment being removed and dredged.
Susan Nilson, a CLE Engineering consultant working with the OBPA, said the dredging and terminal expansion are still possible as two projects, but she said coordinating the two efforts will be a key.
She said the Army Corps is unlikely to change its mind on how it now wants the OBPA to tackle the port upgrades.
“The corps’ decision to decouple was that they had a concern with the contaminated sediment in that embankment that we just talked about, and they also felt that by adding the dock wall expansion it would take approval at the highest level within the Army Corps of Engineers that would cause a delay of six months or more,” Ms. Nilson told OBPA officials during a Thursday conference call.
She said additional tests will be done in the coming weeks to determine whether the arsenic-laced soil can be stored on site after it is removed or will need to be hauled to another location.
Ms. Nilson’s firm, CLE Engineering Inc., is providing inspection, hydrographic surveys, sediment sampling and analysis, waterfront engineering and other services for the OBPA marine terminal expansion and berth-deepening project.
The proposed capital expansion project will increase port storage facilities and berthing capacity and provide expanded capability of cargo handling equipment, according to officials.
Deepening the Ogdensburg Harbor is also expected to ease congestion, reduce shipping costs and unlock new business opportunities for the north country, according to state and federal officials.
Source: Watertown Daily Times
