Norwalk Dredging Begins

October 23, 2013

The Dredge is Here - and it's HUGE

The Cashman Dredge"Dale Pyatt" arrived in Norwalk harbor right on schedule and it's imposing silhouette dwarfs the harbor. Call it humongous, or ginormous, it's just REALLY big at 1,500 tons X 185 feet long with a 65 beam. The new barge - believed to be the largest of its kind in the nation - is equipped with a crane and two mammoth custom clamshell buckets...... which could have easily swallowed the 20 foot boat we were on taking pictures. Unlike a conventional backhoe bucket, the clamshell bucket digs from two directions, trapping mud and waste in between. The larger of the two can hold 70 cubic yards of material at a time - the amount some tractor trailer trucks carry in a single load. The barge has living quarters for up to nine people and a high-tech office with sophisticated navigation equipment that can sense exactly where the dredge is digging

The schedule is to dredge the outer Norwalk River (from the power plant to the Stroffolino Bridge) working 24/7 and then to dredge New Haven Harbor. The combined total for the project is just over eight million dollars. The Norwalk portion of the project will remove about 150,000 cubic yards of sediment from the 12-foot channel. From New Haven the dredge will head north to a project in Portland, Maine before returning home to Quincy Massachusetts in March 2014.

Photo by David Fales

Here's the Press Release

CONCORD, Mass. – A combined maintenance dredging project at Norwalk Harbor in Norwalk, Conn., and at New Haven Harbor in New Haven, Conn., will be completed under the terms of an $8,238,900 contract recently awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District. Work will be accomplished by Cashman Dredging and Marine Contracting Company LLC of Quincy, Mass. Construction is scheduled to start in December 2013 and take about five months to complete. The contract was awarded Sept. 6, 2013. “The work consists of maintenance dredging of about 810,000 cubic yards of sediment from the 35-foot channel and 35-foot turning basin in New Haven Harbor, and about 150,000 cubic yards of sediment from the 12-foot channel in Norwalk Harbor,” said Project Manager Jack Karalius, of the Corps’ New England District, Programs and Project Management Division. The dredge material will be removed using a mechanical dredge and scows. Disposal will be at the Central Long Island Sound Disposal Site (CLISDS), about six miles south from New Haven Harbor and about 35 miles east from Norwalk Harbor. Dredging and disposal windows are from Oct. 1 to Jan. 31 for Norwalk, and Oct. 1 to April 30 for New Haven. However, at least 110,000 cubic yards of New Haven sediment will be reserved for the capping of the Norwalk sediment at the CLISDS. The project will be managed by the Corps and all work will be accomplished under the supervision of a Corps’ Quality Assurance Representative to assure compliance with contract requirements. For more information about Corps’ New England District contract solicitations for work or contract awards

Visit the website at: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/BusinessWithUs/Contracting.aspx

For details on Norwalk Harbor federal navigation project visit the

Corps website at: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/Navigation/Connecticut/NorwalkHarbor.aspx