Bucketful by bucketful, a New-York based contractor is at work just off the Spindle Rock Club, slowly digging out the federal channel into Westport Harbor that in recent years has become all but …
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Bucketful by bucketful, a New-York based contractor is at work just off the Spindle Rock Club, slowly digging out the federal channel into Westport Harbor that in recent years has become all but unnavigable to larger boats coming in and out of the river.
Land Remediation, of Waterford, NY, was selected by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to complete the ambitious dredging project that marine services director Chris Leonard had pushed for for years.
Workers started earlier this month and through the close of the corps’ dredging window in mid-January, will remove up to 75,000 cubic yards of sand from the channel. The work will deepen 9,700 feet of the corridor to nine feet at mean low tide, and the dredged area will be 150 to 200 feet wide.
Currently, parts of the channel are as little as three feet deep at low tide, and groundings have become common in recent years. Leonard said it the town is fortunate that a natural auxiliary channel has formed just to the west of the federal channel, giving boats an alternative.
Leonard, who hears regularly about the channel’s depth issues from commercial and recreational mariners, has been the project’s fiercest advocate over the past three years, and worked with the state’s federal delegation to ensure that the project was prioritized at the ACOE.
It’s not just a convenience issue, he said — the channel’s state has cost Westport’s commercial fleet time and money, and the depth issues also dissuade travelers from coming up into the river.
“We have boat clubs out of Newport that will not allow sailboats to come into Westport because of the degradation of the channel,” he said last month.
Workers are using a large scoop to bring up yards of sand at a time, depositing it on a 1,500-yard scow. Once full, the scow is hauled out and the spoils dumped at the ACOE’s “Westport Harbor Nearshore Placement Site” off the Horseneck Beach reservation.
“It’s good to see it happening,” Leonard said earlier this week.
Though the contract award was not listed in available Army Corps documents, the federal agency estimated last year that the cost could run as high as $5 million. It is federally funded, with no cost borne by Westport.