Posted on April 11, 2025
A long-discussed plan to dredge St. Thomas Harbor to make way for massive Oasis-class cruise ships is on hold, after the V.I. Port Authority did not receive any responses to an invitation to bid on the project.
Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. mentioned the lack of bids during Tuesday’s press briefing.
Bryan spoke remotely from Miami alongside Tourism Commissioner Joseph Boschulte, where they are both attending the SeaTrade Global Cruise Conference.
Bryan touted the territory’s successes in attracting a growing number of cruise ship passengers, particularly on St. Croix, and said the industry is expected to remain strong.
For years, Bryan and others have been discussing ways to keep the interest of cruise lines, which have been churning out larger and larger ships every year, necessitating deeper ports to accommodate their growing size.
In 2022, Bryan said that, “having this dredging done is a distinct advantage because they need homes and more and more of them are being built.” He reiterated the necessity of the dredging project in his 2024 State of the Territory Address, which would deepen the channel to 36 feet to allow larger ships to berth at the West Indian Co. dock in Havensight.
While WICO oversees the cruise ship dock, the V.I. Port Authority is responsible for managing all dredging projects.
The V.I. government has set aside $17 million for the St. Thomas Harbor dredging. But VIPA Executive Director Carlton Dowe said in October that they won’t know the total cost of the project until they go through the process, and “the bid will give us a better indication of what that cost will be.”
Ships are currently struggling to navigate the harbor channel, which is narrowing due to erosion, and “we’re at a place where we can no longer avoid this dredging,” Dowe said.
As of October, the project was expected to begin in the second quarter of 2025 and last around two years.
The V.I. Port Authority published an invitation to bid on the project in December, including dredging of existing slips and expansion of Yacht Haven Grande Marina, which would be paid for by the company.
Dowe said in a statement at the time that the bid package was “a culmination of years and years of work” and collaboration between various agencies. “This project has been a long-time goal of the Port Authority to ensure the continued success of the essential cruise industry that serves as the backbone of tourism that is the lifeblood of the territory’s economy.”
Responses were due by Feb. 14, and Bryan said Tuesday that VIPA did not receive any bids.
The project will be put back out to bid “some time in the near future,” Bryan said. “So that project will be a little delayed, but it works in our favor beacuse we’ll be able to combine it with other dredgings scheduled for Crown Bay as well.”
Dredging at Crown Bay has also been in discussion for years, but a timeline has not been announced.
VIPA manages Crown Bay, while WICO manages the Havensight cruise ship dock.
During Tuesday’s briefing, Bryan and Boschulte did not provide any clarity on reports that Boschulte was selected by the WICO governing board to serve as CEO during a closed-door executive session in March.
Boschulte, who previously served as WICO CEO, is a current member of the WICO board, and Virgin Islands law appears to bar him from becoming an employee within one year of having served on the board of the same organization.
