This month as summer winds down, we wish to offer this brief synopsis from an AIWA colleague, Shelley Trulock, on the impact of smaller scope projects to create healthy, resilient waterway access along Marine Highway 95…

As you travel up and down the Intracoastal Waterway (IWW) in Florida, you notice that there are several factors that influence the amount of shoaling that occurs. Reaches that are adjacent to inlets typically have the highest need for dredging. Passing of storms and natural transportation of sediment in these areas leave problematic shoals which cause problems for both recreational users of the water as well as commercial users.

Then you have areas like the reaches along the waterway named Broward Reach 1 and Palm Beach Reach IV which have not been dredged since it was originally cut in the 1950s. Since the 1950s Mother Nature has done a great job keeping these two reaches clear. Over time however, sand has begun to migrate into the IWW channel which caused the onset of calls from the concerned public. The Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) started making plans to dredge these two reaches to alleviate problematic shoals and create a safer, navigable IWW. A contract was awarded to Cavache Inc. in February 2019 to dredge these two areas of the IWW.

As with most small dredging projects, things are not always as simple as they seem to be! Between the two reaches there was approximately 25,000 cubic yards of material causing the problem! The area of the IWW in Palm Beach County is approximately 1,055 feet long and is adjacent to the Dredge Material Management Area (DMMA) that will house the dredge material.  With this area holding approximately 75% of the problem sand in one large shoal, a standard cutter suction dredge with a pipeline was used and the material was pumped into the DMMA. The second area located in Broward County was approximately 450 feet long and was more spot dredging, meaning it wasn’t one long shoal that could be easily dredged, and is located approximately 13 miles south of the DMMA. An operation requiring this length of haul distance has never been done along the IWW.  Cavache proposed and constructed the use of a barge that not only could be used to mechanically dredge these spotty shoals, but would be multi-purpose in that it was also being used to transport the dredge material northward to the DMMA. Once transported north, the material is pumped into the DMMA. Creativity and ingenuity at its best!

Even though this and other projects along the IWW aren’t millions and millions of dollars or require removing six or seven digits worth of sand doesn’t mean they aren’t equally important to both recreational users along the IWW as well as those that rely on the IWW for their livelihood.