USACE Galveston District awards $2.2 million contract for Matagorda Ship Channel dredging option

Published Sept. 6, 2016

GALVESTON, Texas (Sept. 6, 2016) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District awarded a contract option in the amount of $2,241,800 to Orion Marine Construction Inc., for dredging of additional reaches of the Matagorda Ship Channel in Matagorda and Calhoun counties, Texas.

The contractor is required to remove approximately 1.9 million cubic yards of dredged material from the Matagorda Ship Channel (from Matagorda Peninsula to Point Comfort) beginning September 2016 with an estimated completion date of December 2016.

“Maintenance dredging is required annually to provide adequate channel availability for ships navigating the Matagorda Ship Channel,” said Aron Edwards, an operations manager in the USACE Galveston District’s Navigation Branch. “All dredged material from the Matagorda Ship Channel will be placed in open-water, unconfined placement areas.”

The Matagorda Ship Channel was constructed in the 1960s to allow deep-draft vessels to travel between the Gulf of Mexico and Matagorda and Lavaca Bays. The channel is part of Port of Port Lavaca – Point Comfort, a major sea port in the state and nation, and carries approximately 11.6 million tons of commerce annually.

The USACE Galveston District was established in 1880 as the first engineer district in Texas to oversee river and harbor improvements. The district is directly responsible for maintaining more than 1,000 miles of channel, including 250 miles of deep draft and 750 miles of shallow draft as well as the Colorado River Locks and Brazos River Floodgates.

For more news and information, visit www.swg.usace.army.mil. Find us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/GalvestonDistrict or follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/USACEgalveston.


Release no. 16-042