The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started dredging in the outer St. Joseph Harbor.
A crew from King Company out of Holland got to work Tuesday, pulling sand from the harbor to be deposited at a depth of about four feet along the shoreline south of the harbor near Lions Park Beach.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Grand Haven Operations Manager Liz Wilkinson told us how it all works.
“The equipment that’s out there is what we call a hydraulic dredge, and how I think of it is it’s like a huge shop vac,” Wilkinson said. “So there’s a big tube that goes down in a cutter head that kind of cuts into the sand that’s down there and mixes it with water, sucks it up through the dredge, and then it gets pushed through pipes down to the placement area.”
Wilkinson says there are two benefits to the dredging in that the sand is used to replenish beaches while the harbor is cleared for shipping traffic. The commercial harbors are always given top priority with seasonal dredging operations.
“Those docks that receive material, they’re receiving material that supports all kinds of infrastructure in the region. So, like road construction and infrastructure, other infrastructure construction. So we’ve got to prioritize that first.”
Wilkinson says about 22,000 cubic yards of sediment is scheduled to be dredged through the end of next week.
The Army Corps in Grand Haven will manage about ten dredging projects along Lake Michigan this year. Holland is already finished, while Grand Haven, New Buffalo, Muskegon, Manistee, and Leland will come next.
Wilkinson advises everyone to stay away from the pipes where sand is being deposited near the beach, telling us a whole lot of sand is going to be pumped through there and it will take a little while to stabilize.
