Kennebec River Maintenance Dredging

Kennebec River Dredging, Lower Kennebec River, Maine.

Pre-Solicitation Notice

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District will be issuing an Invitation for Bids (IFB) on behalf of the United States Navy (USN) for maintenance dredging of three portions of the Federal Navigation Project (FNP) in the lower Kennebec River, Maine. This will be an unrestricted Invitation for Bid (IFB) procurement requiring a trailing suction hopper dredge to perform the work. The NAICS code for the work is 237990 with a size standard of $37M. The construction will extend over a 3-4 week period. The estimated construction cost is $1,000,000 to $5,000,000. Any responsible source meeting this standard may submit a bid to be considered by the New England District.

The work involves maintenance dredging for the USN of three portions of the authorized, 27-foot deep, 500-foot wide FNP in the Lower Kennebec River. Dredging is required to meet the navigational requirements of newly constructed surface combatants being built and tested at Bath Iron Works (BIW).  The proposed work consists of dredging approximately 80,000 cubic yards (cy) of clean sand (approximately 30,000 cy of required material and 50,000 cy of overdepth (OD) material). Approximately 61,000 cy of material will be removed from the Doubling Point area (i.e., just below Bath), and approximately 10,000 cy of material will be removed from the Popham Beach area (at the river mouth). In addition to the historically dredged sites, this proposed maintenance dredging includes dredging approximately 9,000 cy of material will be removed from Bath Reach (just below the Carlton Bridge and adjacent to BIW).  As part of this proposal, maintenance dredging will be performed to remove the sand-waves in the vicinity of Doubling Point to an elevation of -32 feet MLLW +2 feet overdepth (OD) to improve the chance that adequate depths will endure. The 61,000 cy to be removed from the channel at Doubling Point includes dredging to an elevation of -32 feet MLLW +2 feet OD. Material dredged from the Bath Reach area and the Doubling Point area will be placed in the previously used in-river disposal area north of Bluff Head in about 45-90 feet of water. Material dredged from the Popham Beach area will be placed at a newly established nearshore placement site called Jackknife Ledge West Disposal Site, in about 45-30 feet of water. This site is just northwest of the previously used Jackknife Ledge placement site.  The dredging and dredged material placement work is expected to take 3-4 weeks to complete. The available work window for the dredging and placement of dredged material is from 1 December 2026 to 15 February 2027.

This is not an invitation for bids at this time. The solicitation requirements and contract documents, to include instructions for submission (which may include definitive responsibility criterion) and the response date will be available on or about 15 June 2026.  Neither telephonic, mailed nor fax requests for hard copies will be accepted. The solicitation will only be available online; in order to view the solicitation offerors must access the System for Award Management website (www.sam.gov). To download the solicitation, offerors must access the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment (https://piee.eb.mil/), solicitation module. Amendments, if any, to the solicitation will be made available at the PIEE website. Registrants are responsible for the accuracy of the information on the SAM.gov Registration List. All responsible sources may submit a bid which shall be considered by the New England District. Additional questions may be emailed to the Contract Specialist at Elizabeth.k.glasgow@usace.army.mil. This notice does not commit the U.S. Government to contract for any supply or service.