Palm Beach Harbor Maintenance Dredging 2012

Palm Beach Harbor is home to a full-service, diversified port, offering cruise and cargo services to more than 30 onsite tenants and users. The Port is located 80 miles north of Miami and 135 miles south of Port Canaveral. The ship entrance is through an inlet channel 300 feet wide leading into Lake Worth. The Port of Palm Beach is the fourth busiest container port of Florida’s 14 deepwater ports and is the 18th busiest container port in the United States.

On behalf of the Army Corps-Jacksonville District, CASHMAN was contracted to conduct maintenance dredging of the Palm Beach Harbor Entrance Channel and adjoining settling basin to alleviate critical shoaling that was discovered during a post-storm survey conducted in 2011. The Entrance Channel passes through Lake Worth Inlet in Palm Beach County and is part of the overall Palm Beach Harbor project. Due to the hazardous conditions presented by the shoaling to Palm Beach Harbor's commercial shipping traffic, this project included an expedited design and award schedule.


PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

• Dredging of approximately 125,000 yd³ of material to authorized 37-ft depth from the Palm Beach Harbor Entrance Channel and adjoining settling basin to alleviate critical shoaling.
• The project entailed dredging the entrance from station 30+00 to Station 56+00 to the authorized 37-ft depth plus an allowable 2-ft over depth. The settling basin was dredged to a depth of 35 feet plus an allowable 2-ft overdepth.
• Hazardous conditions presented by the shoaling to Palm Beach Harbor's commercial shipping traffic resulted in an expedited schedule.
• Dredged material was placed in the permitted nearshore disposal area, which lies 500 feet south of the inlet.
• Work included monitoring for endangered species, as well as turbidity monitoring.