Corps marks start of 2016 Indiana Harbor dredging

Published Sept. 20, 2016

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that dredging resumed at Indiana Harbor on Sept. 13, 2016, and will continue through winter 2016.

Since 2012, nearly 1 million cubic yards of sediment has been removed from the waterway and confined, greatly reducing the contaminants that had previously been washing into Lake Michigan, and improving the efficiency of deep draft commercial navigation. Over the next few years, the entire federal channel will be dredged to congressionally-authorized navigation depths, including the removal of sediments in adjacent berthing and docking areas at nonfederal expense.

The existing navigation project consists of a harbor channel ranging in depth from 27 to 29 feet low water datum and two canals with depths of 22 feet. Contaminated sediment and a lack of a suitable storage place for the sediment lead to the harbor not being dredged from 1972 to 2012. The project includes the operation and maintenance of the confined disposal facility (CDF) on a site in East Chicago, Ind. 

Additional information about the project is available at http://www.lrc.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works-Projects/Indiana-Harbor/.

 


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Vanessa Villarreal

Release no. 16-011