The USACE Wilmington District recently awarded a $16.4 million contract to Marinex Construction, Inc. for the dredging of Morehead City Inner Ocean Bar.

Dredging the Inner Ocean Bar will help keep one of NC’s two deep water ports open.

“This project also features our ‘beneficial use’ program. Beneficial use allows us to place the beach compatible sand from the dredging effort on an adjacent beach (Atlantic Beach) to help with coastal storm risk mitigation,” said USACE.

The work will consist of maintenance dredging of the Morehead City Harbor federal navigation channel reaches including the Cutoff, Range A, Range B and Range C.

The dredging is to be performed by hydraulic cutter suction dredge and/or hopper dredge. The estimated quantity of material to be dredged, including allowable over depth, is approximately 800,000 cubic yards.

All beach work will be completed during the established environmental windows. The work includes shaping the beach and providing pre and post construction surveys.