Dredging work starts on Swimomish Channel in the United States

Dredging work on the 11-mile (1.6km) Swinomish Navigation Channel in Washington State, USA, is scheduled to begin during the week of September 9. The site is a federal navigation channel located between the eastern shore of Fidalgo Island and the mainland at the western edge of Skagit County.

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is in charge of overseeing the marine safety and access improvement project, which is currently being performed by contractor American Construction.

Mechanical clamshell dredging, a method that uses a bucket-shaped dredging tool resembling a clamshell to scoop material from the bottom of a water body, will be used in the south entrance of the Swinomish channel. USACE said work will run 24 hours, six days per week with all in-water work to be completed no later than February 15, 2025.

Dredging will occur in the south entrance, the Hole-in-the Wall and Rainbow Bridge areas and the north entrance, to remove approximately 150,000 cubic yards (115,000 cubic metres) of accumulated sediment. All material will go to the Rosario Strait open-water disposal site.