Army Corps to Dredge Stage Harbor Entrance Channel

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CHATHAM – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will conduct maintenance dredging of the entrance to Stage Harbor in Chatham beginning next week.

The Corps’ special purpose dredge, Currituck, is expected to arrive early in the week.

Shoaling of the entrance channel impacted navigation throughout the summer boating season and conditions worsened during the early fall.

The U.S. Coast Guard was also concerned that shoaling would limit their ability to respond to search and rescue operations.

The project was not originally in the Corps’ current fiscal year budget.

However, supplemental funding became available through the Additional Supplemental Appropriations Disaster Relief Act to enable emergency dredging at select Army Corps navigation projects of shoaled material deposited by natural disasters.

Chatham’s Stage Harbor entrance and Cuttyhunk Habor were the only federal navigation projects in Massachusetts chose for the emergency dredging due to critical shoaling and impacts to commercial and public safety.

The special purpose dredge is currently nearing completion of work at Cuttyhunk Habor and will then relocate to Stage Harbor.

The Currituck is a hopper dredge and dredged sand will be placed in the existing permitted dredge material disposal site offshore of Harding’s Beach.

The work in Stage Harbor is expected to last for three weeks.