Lone Star Harbor Safety Committee s1
Dredging & Marine Construction Subcommittee
Lone Star Harbor Safety Committee
Meeting Time: Tuesday, 2 December 2014, 10:30 am
Meeting Place: PHA Executive Building
Address: 111 E. Loop N.
Houston, TX 77059
Meeting Agenda:
A.) Dredge Sub Committee Meeting 10:30 to 11:30 am
1. Introduction to dredge subcommittee members and sign in sheet
2. Questions & Answers
- Port of Houston channel projects
- Federal projects (USACE)
- Recreational Boaters
3. Current topics for the dredging sub-committee 2014
a. Presentation – “Dynamic Underkeel Systems and Optimized Dredging”
Jonathon Pearce, OMC International
http://www.omcinternational.com/
b. ICW – Jurisdictional boundaries and increased traffic
4. LSHSC dredge subcommittee short (1-2 yrs) and long term goals (3-5yrs).
a. Maintain and overview of USACE projects, schedules, and pre-dredge conferences.
b. Communicate with VTS, Pilots, port authorities, and USACE
c. Committee outreach through the Port Authorities and private terminals to educate all facility operators on the importance of maintaining adequate depth alongside their berths.
d. Coordination between dredging subcommittee and Nav Ops.
5. Next Scheduled Meeting
a. Full committee: ?, 10:00 am, ?
b. Subcommittee: 13 January ?, 10:30 am, TBA
B.) Action Items:
C.) Open discussion:
- - UPDATES - -
PHA Projects:
· The PHA dredging of the Barbours Cut channel began July 25th. This is the project to widen the berths to 225’ and shift the 300’ channel 75’ north. The channel and berths will be deepened to 45’. We expect this dredging to be done by the end of the year.
· PHA’s approval to dredge the Bayport Channel was received from the Corps on 9/22/14. The preliminary landside work at PA 15 has been completed. Now that the preparation of the levee is complete, dredging of the Bayport Channel can begin as soon as a dredge is available. This project will be widening the channel by 100’ in the bay reach and 50’ in the land cut. Additionally, the channel and PHA berths will be deepened to 45’. We expect that dredging will begin sometime in late October. Under the current schedule, all of the new work dredging at Bayport should be complete by next May and all maintenance dredging and levee work should be done in the fall of 2015. The contractor has not submitted any information on their work plan for the Bayport dredging yet other than the proposed pipeline route. When information is available, the PHA community relations staff will work with the local communities and organizations to make them aware of the plans.
· Additional information regarding the contract can be found at www.deepeningportofhouston.com This site will be updated when new information is available
Federal Projects:
Ongoing project:
· HSC Carpenters to Greens (includes area upstream of Greens Bayou to Hunting Bayou). RLB has completed dredging of Green's Bayou and is currently dredging the HSC upstream of Green's Bayou. We anticipate another 5 days or so before the dredge will relocate to the HSC adjacent to Carpenters Bayou and will begin placing material into Lost Lake.
Upcoming projects:
· Peggy Lake Levee Raising: contract awarded Sept 10th to Affolter Contracting Inc.
· Alexander Island Levee Raise: scheduled for a November 2014 award.
· Sims to Turning Basin: scheduled for a December 2014 award.
· Galveston Entrance Channel and HSC Bolivar to Redfish: scheduled for an April 2015 award.
· Exxon to Carpenters: scheduled for July 2015 award
· Bayport Flare: next Federal job is scheduled for an August 2015 award. NOTE: Prior to the next Federal job, the Port of Houston Authority will be performing maintenance dredging of the Bayport Flare in fall 2014 and spring 2015 as part of their Deepening and Widening project.
· PA 14/15 Shoreline Stabilization: repair of erosion along levees, scheduled for August 2105 award
· Mid Bay PA dewatering: scheduled for July 2015 award
· Spilman dewatering and spillbox replacement: scheduled for July 2015 award
11) Industries who wish to utilize Federal placement areas for dredged material placement, including with pass-by dredging in conjunction with Federal contracts, need to contact Frank Garcia (409-766-3065) as soon as possible, preferably a year out, due to the high volume of requests. Although we are trying to accommodate industries as much as possible, there is no guarantee that an industry will be able to use a preferred PA at a specific time due to other Federal job requirements which take priority, as well as capacity issues. At this time, fees paid by industries for use of the Federal PAs are submitted to the General Treasury and do not come back to the Houston Ship Channel project. This creates a challenge maintaining the Placement Areas since the HSC budget remains the same, but more material is being placed into the sites. We are working on a way to retain fees for the HSC project in the future to help facilitate PA management and levee raises, but at the moment do not have a method in place to retain any fees.