Maintenance Dredging, Kennebec River, Kennebec Maine

Maintenance Dredging, Kennebec River, Kennebec Maine. 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.