Posted on December 17, 2018
Residents of Queens Creek will finally get some relief from the shoaling that has plagued boaters on the creek for years.
Queens Creek residents Chris and Bill Burry said in an e-mail that the dredge Grace II, which is owned by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ contractor Southern Maryland Dredging Company, anchored inside Cow Point at the entrance to the creek last week.
The crew will begin setting up next week, said Southern Maryland’s Director of Operations Erika Goldman, and she expects dredging to begin late next week or early the following week. The expected completion date is Jan. 28, she said.
According to last week’s Local Notice to Mariners, there will be approximately 5,400 feet of pipeline at the maximum and it will be continuously marked with orange buoys. In addition to the Grace II, said the notice, there will be an anchor barge and three small work skiffs at the site, and dredging will occur Monday through Friday.
Goldman said that during operation, the dredge will monitor VHF channels 08 and 13, so boaters may call the dredge if they need to navigate around the equipment. The dredge will make way for any boater that needs to come through, she said.
The Burrys said that the dredging project is the successful culmination of local residents and businesses working with the U.S. Coast Guard, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Montross), and the Norfolk Office of the Army Corps of Engineers to allocate funding for the project.
Source: Gazette-Journal
