Corps Awards Contract For Lower Miss Dredging

The New Orleans Engineer District has awarded a $17.3 million firm-fixed-price contract to Covington, La.-based Weeks Marine LLC for a fully crewed and equipped cutterhead dredge to work near the mouth of the Lower Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, La. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received.

According to the Department of Defense’s contract digest, fiscal year 2024 civil operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $17,342,700 were obligated at the time of the award, which was announced April 25. Four days later, the U.S. Coast Guard released a notice to mariners that the cutterhead dredge R.S. Weeks would be working in Southwest Pass, from Head of Passes to near Mile 19.5 below Head of Passes, and in the Mississippi River to about Mile 6 above Head of Passes through approximately July 15.

The dredge will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the Coast Guard notice stated.

“The contract was issued for dredging work in the navigation channel related to the high river levels on the Mississippi,” said Matt Roe, a spokesperson for the New Orleans District.

The R.S. Weeks, which measures 268 3/4 feet by 65 feet, with an overall length of more than 386 feet and a discharge diameter of 30 inches, was built in 1980 at Wiley Manufacturing in Port Deposit, Md.