Harbor dredging in Kennebunkport to begin next year
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will work next year with a private contractor to dredge sand and silt from Cape Porpoise Harbor, improving marine navigation off the eastern shore of Kennebunkport.
The $2.5 million project is expected to take between one and three months and to be conducted between Nov. 1, 2019 and March 15, 2020, according to an Army Corps news release.
The Corps last dredged the harbor in 1976. That project scooped 123,000 cubic yards of sediment from Cape Porpoise’s 15-feet-deep anchorage, 15-feet-deep channel and 6-feet-deep channel.
Natural shoaling processes have reduced the depth of the channels to as little as 1 foot at low tide, making navigation difficult or sometimes impossible, a Corps spokeswoman said. The conditions prompted the town to request help from the Corps.
Dredging the 12-acre site will restore the full depth of the 6-foot channel and clear the other channel to a depth of 10 feet.
A contractor will be hired to use a mechanical dredge and scows to remove material and then transport it to ocean disposal sites off Cape Arundel or Cape Elizabeth, according to the news release.
Public comments on the project can be submitted to the Corps until Nov. 20, and more detailed information about the project is available here.
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