The Lake Worth Inlet is undergoing an emergency dredging in order to remove sand shoals from the inlet that caused draft restrictions at the Port of Palm Beach.
According to the port, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has contracted a dredge that was undergoing work in Jacksonville, FL.
“ Right now we have a shoal that has limited our draft to 26 feet low water 28 feet mean high water and other restrictions on larger ships that are less maneuverable at the port ,” said Port Engineer Ronald Coddington .
Coddington expects the emergency dredge to remove some 11,000 cubic yards of sand from the harbor entrance.
“ It’s important the dredging happens now because it affects our economy, it affects the economics of certain ships, and commodities such as sugar, molasses, liquid asphalt and petroleum products ,” Coddington said.
The emergency dredge should sustain unrestrictive depth until the regular annual dredge scheduled for later this year.
That project is expected to remove about 35,000 cubic yards of sand from the inlet.