USA: DNREC Announces Plans To Dredge Little River

DNREC’s Divisions of Watershed Stewardship and Fish & Wildlife announced plans for a cooperative dredging project on the Little River near Dover, from the Route 9/Bayside Drive bridge in Little Creek east into the Delaware Bay.

Dredging is scheduled to begin in the second week of August. Southwind Construction of Evansville, Ind., was awarded the contract for the project.

The channel is approximately 12,400 feet long and will be dredged to widths of 40 feet in the river portion and 60 feet in the Delaware Bay portion, and to a depth of 5 feet at average low tide. The Little River was last dredged by the state in 1981-1982.

The $1.01 million state-funded project includes dredging 79,000 cubic yards of material from the channel, and the removal of 30 derelict pilings and a derelict vessel from the waterway near Little Creek.

Project completion is anticipated by Oct. 1, before peak waterfowl season.