News Release
| Release Number: | 06-116 |
| Dated: | 8/7/2006 |
| Contact: | Heidi Y. Helwig, 503-808-4510 |
Portland, Ore. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Friday gave its Notice to Proceed to begin the 2006 dredging year, helping to continue its commitment to provide a deeper channel from the mouth to Portland/Vancouver on the Columbia River.
Bean Stuyvesant of New Orleans will deepen by 3 feet a 15-mile section of the lower river near Astoria this summer, between River Mile 21 up to about RM 36 on the Columbia River, and perform maintenance dredging at the mouth. Stuyvesant’s bid for the work was $26,651,350.
The Corps also may exercise options under the contract to allow Stuyvesant to perform maintenance dredging on the 103.5-mile-long, 40-foot-deep Columbia River federal navigation channel between the mouth and Vancouver, Wash. The Corps expects the work to begin later this month.
Other bidders were: Great Lakes Dredge and Dock of Illinois, $27,320,500 and Manson Construction of Seattle, $42,632,000.
This is the second year of deepening work under the Columbia River Channel Improvement Project. In 2005, the first channel construction work began with the deepening of the lower 18 miles of the Columbia River, from RM 3 to RM 21 and the upper river from RM 95 to just past RM 104. In 2004, ecosystem restoration work was performed at Lord-Walker Island near Longview, Wash. Additional restoration and mitigation work will take place in the coming months and years.
The Columbia River Channel Improvement Project is a collaborative effort between the Corps and five lower river ports to improve navigation in the Columbia River by deepening the navigation channel to accommodate the current fleet of international bulk cargo and container ships. Currently, these ships cannot fill their holds to capacity due to depth limitations caused by the existing 40-foot channel. By deepening the river, ships will be better able to fully load, providing an estimated annual cost savings of $18.8 million to shippers.
The five ports are the ports of Portland and St. Helens in Oregon, and the ports of Vancouver, Woodland, Kalama and Longview in Washington.