Bayside Dredging May Start by Early August

Piping for a long-awaited bayside dredging project may arrive as early as next week, and the work could possibly start as early as Aug. 1, according to Ocean City Business Administrator Mike Dattilo.

Dattilo said Thursday that work in preparing the site where the dredge spoils will be pumped is going well and has benefitted from relatively dry weather.

The project is expected to take two to three months to complete and the city has a permitting window through November.

City Council in May awarded a $1.8 million contract to dredge parts of Ocean City's back bay.

Many channels and lagoons on the bayside are impassable to boat traffic at low tide. The on July 28 was changed this week to coincide with a higher tide.

City Council voted unanimously to give the contract to Hydro-Marine Construction Company of Hainesport, NJ, which submitted the lowest of three competitive bids. Along with $194,634 in planning costs paid to Duffield Associates, the existing project should cost about $2 million.

The project wil include dredging in an area between 16th Street and 34th Street, including substantial parts of:

• Carnival Bayou Lagoon: Between 16th and 17th streets (the dredging in this area would include part of the bayfront heading toward 15th Street)
• Venetian Bayou Lagoon: Between 17th and 18th streets
• Sunny Harbor Lagoon: Between Arkansas and Walnut
• South Harbor Lagoon: Between Spruce and Tennessee
• Clubhouse/Bluefish Lagoon: Between Waterway Road and Clubhouse Drive

The areas would be dredged to a minimum depth of four feet (at low water) and average of five feet — with some spots six feet deep.

About 100,000 cubic yards of dredge spoils can be transported to an existing site off 34th Street without further permitting, Dattilo said.

But with the additional 100,000 cubic yards, the existing spoils site would be filled to capacity, and the absence of a new site is the primary obstacle to completing more dredging work in other parts of Ocean City.

Dattilo said Thursday that the city is continuing to explore possibilities for other spoils sites.