Pine Bluff Sand & Gravel Receives $15.4 Million Order
The New Orleans Engineer District has awarded Pine Bluff Sand & Gravel Company of White Hall, Ark., a $15.4 million contract action for continued maintenance dredging on the Lower Mississippi River.
The $15,419,322 firm-fixed-price award, announced November 5, calls for Pine Bluff to provide the equipment, materials, supplies and manpower to keep a dredge on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in designated primary and secondary dredging regions. Work locations and funding will be set with individual orders, and the latest action has an estimated completion date of November 6, 2027. The Army said bids were solicited online, and one bid was received.
The award falls under contract W912P8-25-D-0001, Pine Bluff’s single-award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for Mississippi River dustpan dredging. The underlying contract was awarded in late 2024 and has an ordering period running through November 5, 2029. Federal procurement records list its ceiling at about $108.4 million.
The Corps announced its intent to negotiate with Pine Bluff in July 2024, citing federal sole-source authority and saying only one responsible source could meet its requirements. The contract calls for a fully crewed, self-propelled dustpan hydraulic pipeline dredge able to remove and dispose of shoal material on the river. The required attendant plant includes a fuel barge, supply barge, landing barge and survey boat, at least two tenders and at least 1,000 feet of floating pontoon pipeline, with more auxiliary equipment as assignments require.
The contract splits the river into two regions. The primary region runs from Mile 320 above Head of Passes (AHP) at Black Hawk, La., to Mile 103 AHP at New Orleans, reaches the Corps said historically need dredging every year. The secondary region extends from Cairo, Ill., at Mile 953.8 AHP down to Mile 320, giving the New Orleans District the ability to call on Pine Bluff’s plant across much of the Lower Mississippi as shoaling develops.
Federal procurement data show six delivery or task orders under the contract so far, including a roughly $16.5 million continuous-dredging order awarded in January 2025 and an approximately $10 million fiscal year 2026 maintenance-dredging order.
The Corps’ Dredging Quality Management database lists the fiscal year 2025 Mississippi River Dustpan Maintenance Dredging project as active, with Pine Bluff’s dredge Wallace McGeorge as the contracted dredge. Listed work sites include Wilkerson Point, Baton Rouge Front, Medora Crossing, Alhambra Crossing, Smoke Bend Crossing, Redeye Crossing, Arlington Lights, Bayou Goula Crossing, Granada Crossing, Sardine Point, Philadelphia Point and Belmont Crossing, among other deep-draft crossings.
Pine Bluff calls the Wallace McGeorge the largest privately owned dustpan dredge in the United States and said it works with the Corps to maintain critical deep-draft crossings between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Sediment builds up in shallow stretches of the channel, and recurring dredging keeps those crossings at authorized depths for commercial navigation.
Rather than a new standalone contract, the November 5 award continues the Corps’ standing arrangement for quickly deploying a private-sector dustpan dredge when river conditions call for it.
