The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, awarded a contract in the amount of $3,583,500 to Orion Marine Construction Inc., for the maintenance dredging of the Texas City Channel in Galveston County, Texas.
The contractor is required to remove approximately 936,000 cubic yards of dredged material from the Texas City Channel in the coming weeks with an estimated completion date of March 2015.
“ Dredging the Port of Texas City is critical to ensuring waterborne commerce is able to continue to transport approximately 57 million tons of cargo annually ,” said Paula Rankin Wise, USACE Galveston District operations manager.
“ Currently ranked 11th in the nation in short tons, the deepwater port services the largest petrochemical complex in the nation.”
According to Wise, all of the dredged material from this contract will be placed in the beneficial use placement area, Shoal Point PA 3, 4 and 5, located south of the channel in Galveston Bay.
Texas ports create nearly 1.4 million jobs generating $82.8 billion in personal income annually and remain an integral component to the state’s overall transportation system, creating a key linkage with highways, rail and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.