The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to undertake an emergency maintenance dredging in the lower Kennebec River between Phippsburg and Bath to allow for safe downriver passage of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Rafael Peralta when it leaves Bath Iron Works to join the U.S. Navy fleet in April.
Dredging of the lower Kennebec River was last performed in 2011.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, Maine’s congressional delegation reported that the Army Corps of Engineers has issued a 15-day public notice of the emergency dredging that’s intended to restore the river channel to its authorized depth between the BIW shipyard in Bath and the open water at the river’s mouth in Phippsburg.Â
The notice indicates that dredging will focus on the Doubling Point and Popham Beach sections of the river.
The delegation had written a letter on Nov. 15 urging the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works to authorize the dredging as soon as possible. In their letter, the delegation noted that the river channel in some areas was only 18 feet deep, significantly shallower than the authorized channel depth of 27 feet. They also noted that the shallow conditions prevented the Peralta from leaving BIW for a machinery sea trial last September. Â Â
In addition to the emergency dredging, the delegation noted that the Army Corps and the Navy are working on a plan to perform regular maintenance dredging of the Kennebec River to ensure unfettered passage of BIW-built ships going forward.
The future USS Rafael Peralta is scheduled to be commissioned by the U.S. Navy on July 29 in San Diego, Calif. It is named for Navy Cross recipient Sgt. Rafael Peralta, a U.S. Marine who was killed in action in Fallujah, Iraq, at the age of 25 on Nov. 15, 2004.
