PORT TOWNSEND — Beginning today, the mouth of the Boat Haven marina will be dredged for the first time since 1998, and project supervisors warn of interruptions in boat traffic.
The Army Corps of Engineers and American Construction will work through Wednesday to remove some 2,000 cubic yards from the mouth of Jefferson County’s largest marina.
Jim Pivarnik, deputy director of the Port of Port Townsend, said while the waterways will be mostly open today and Saturday, work on Sunday and Monday probably will cause “substantial stops in traffic.”
“This type of work has the potential of stopping marine traffic substantially,” Pivarnik said.
“What we did was schedule the interrupting work for a day with the least impact.
“But on Sunday, there will be six to eight hours where no one will be allowed in or out of the marina.”
Pivarnik said the dredging work would be finished at 7 p.m. each night and the marina would be completely open from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. each night.
“The good news about this is that it is fairly quick work,” he said.
“Still, we’re encouraging people, and the marine trades, to move boats during off hours during the work.”
Every 7 to 10 years
John Hicks, project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the marina must be dredged every seven to 10 years, at the cost of the federal government, because the location serves as a federal navigation channel.
“That’s determined by amount of commercial traffic, but also the Coast Guard Cutter’s use of the location,” Hicks said.
“Where that channel is, and where we are dredging, is right where the cutter sits.”
The Coast Guard cutter Osprey operates out of Boat Haven marina enforcing maritime law, conducting search and rescue and utilizing national defense strategies.
The Osprey is 87-feet-long and 51-feet-tall, with a clearance of four feet below the waterline.
The goal of the dredging operation is to take the marina floor down to at least 12 feet below the waterline at zero tide.
“It’s all over the place right now, and there is a lot of silt,” Pivarnik said.
“We want to make it a 12-foot depth at zero tide everywhere.”
The dredged material will be loaded onto a barge and dumped in an open water disposal site adjacent to Protection Island.
For more information about the project, see the Port of Port Townsend Web site at www.portofpt.com.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
