Z--Kennebec River Dredging, Maine

The New England District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued an RFP to perform maintenance dredging of two portions (and advance maintenance dredging in one of those two portions) of the Federal project in the Kennebec River in the summer of 2011. Dredging is needed to remove dangerous shoals from the channel in advance of the transit of the U.S. Navy Destroyer, the "SPRUANCE", currently scheduled to depart the Bath Iron Works (BIW) on or about September 1, 2011 on its way to being commissioned. The SPRUANCE has been deemed critical to national defense and its transit from the BIW cannot be delayed. We are proposing to perform maintenance dredging in the vicinity of Doubling Point (just below Bath) and at the mouth of the river near Popham Beach. We estimate that a total of about 70,000 cubic yards (i.e. 60,000 cubic yards from Doubling Point and 10,000 cubic yards from Popham Beach) of clean sandy material needs to be removed from the channel. The shoals in the Doubling Point area consist of massive sand-waves oscillating within vertical and horizontal ranges; the elevation at the tips of these sand-waves vary from -19.7' to -26.8'. As part of this proposal, advance maintenance may be performed to remove the sand-waves in the vicinity of Doubling Point to a maximum elevation of -32' in an effort to improve the chance that adequate depths will endure. The estimated quantity mentioned above (i.e. 60,000 cubic yards) includes advance maintenance dredging. The proposed work will be performed with a hopper dredge over a three to five week period beginning on or about August 1, 2011. The material dredged from the Doubling Point area will be disposed of at the previously used in-river disposal site located north of Bluff Head in about 95 to 100 feet of water. Material dredged from the Popham Beach area will be disposed at a previously used 500-yard circular near-shore disposal site located about 0.4 nautical miles south of Jackknife Ledge in depths of about 40 to 50 feet. Maintenance dredging is contingent upon the availability of the necessary approvals and funding. This was issued as an unrestricted procurement