Bath Iron Works Sinking Basin Maintenance Dredging 2017

Bath Iron Works is a major United States shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine. Since its founding in 1884, the shipyard has built private, commercial and military vessels, most of which have been ordered by the United States Navy. The shipyard has built and sometimes designed battleships, frigates, cruisers, and destroyers, including the Arleigh Burke-class, which are currently among the world's most advanced surface warships. During World War II, sailors and Navy officials considered ships built at Bath Iron Works to be of superior toughness, giving rise to the phrase "Bath-built is best-built."

CASHMAN DREDGING was contracted to perform the deepwater navigation maintenance project, dredging and then disposing of 48,000 yd³ of dredge spoils from the Bath Iron Works (BIW) dry-dock sinking basin.


PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

• The sinking basin was dredged to -70 feet plus one foot of allowable overdredge. Dredged material was placed at the in-river disposal site at Bluff Head, ~2.5 nautical miles downstream on the Kennebec River, utilizing the split hull dump scow Joe Verrochi.
• The Kennebec River has swift currents and tide variations of up to 10 feet. Due to the depth of the project and river conditions, CASHMAN'S dredge Icarus, formerly known as F.J. Belesimo, operated on wires and anchors as ice buildup behind the dredge created a substantial amount of extra weight causing anchors to slide.
• During this project, the river ice created several additional problems, including closing the scow after disposal on large chunks of ice; ice floating up and downstream made it impossible to survey on a number of days, destroying tide boards, and risk of damaging the survey boat hull.
• The project was completed ahead of schedule despite the challenging weather conditions.

A $5,000 donation was made to the Maine Maritime Museum in appreciation for letting CASHMAN DREDGING use their dock for crew change and parking.