CONNEAUT — A Michigan dredging company could spend several weeks perched in Conneaut Harbor this summer, scooping sand out of channels used by Great Lakes carriers, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
BayShore Contractors of Holland, Mich., will be paid $549,000 to remove 85,000 cubic yards of sand and silt from channels that link Lake Erie and the Pittsburgh and Conneaut Dock Co. The work is expected to start Aug. 1 and conclude by the end of September, according to a statement released Monday.
The project is not related to dredging the Conneaut Port Authority has planned for the channels, which lead from the marinas and public boat launch ramps. Sand that breaches the harbor’s west breakwater via wind or water regularly fills in the channels, causing fits for boaters.
The Port Authority had hoped to attach its project to the Army Corps’ work but learned the types of dredgers needed weren’t compatible, said Denver Spieldenner, chairman.
“We’re going out to bid for our (project),” he said. “We tried to piggy-back with the corps, but they couldn’t get (that type of dredger) into our area.”
A dredger that lifts the sand with a shovel will be used for the corps’ work, while the Port Authority project requires a machine that vacuums the silt.
A government grant will help finance the Port Authority’s program, Spieldenner said. Members are hoping the work can be done this summer, but there has been some difficulty finding a dredging company with free space on its 2008 calendar.
“There’s a lot of dredging going on around the Great Lakes,” he said. “If it gets to late fall, we’ll probably wait until next year.”
Contracts for nine dredging projects, totaling nearly $8 million, have been approved by the Army Corps, according to the statement.
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