Project Updates – July 25, 2008
MLive.com reports that a project to dredge the navigation channel in the Saginaw River from Bay City south to Saginaw is on track to begin in late August, acording to the Saginaw County public works commissioner.
The US Army Corps of Engineers plans to bid out the work soon, and award a contract by August 20th, said Lynn Duerod, a Corps spokeswoman in Detroit.
The work will clear 200,000 cubic yards of silt that has built up while local and federal officials have tried to develop a site for the spoils, a process that has been going on for more than 20 years.
A US$5 million, 200-acre Dredged Material Disposal Facility has since been built on the Bay-Saginaw county line in Frankenlust and Zilwaukee townships, a facility that is designed to accept spoils for 20 years.
The same report said the Corps also is lining up US$3.8 million worth of dredging money for 2009, to clear out a backlog of silt in the lower river, Bay City to the mouth, and in Saginaw Bay. The US$3.8 million was included in an Energy and Water Appropriations bill that cleared a US Senate committee on July 11th.