The dredge contractors for the dredge project in the Hopper Dredge Disposal Area (HDDA), Great Lakes Dredge and Dock (GLDD) will not utilize the previously scheduled channel closure on Tuesday, August 31, 2021.
The decision to delay the channel closures again was made based on the approach of Tropical Depression Nine which is expected to make landfall as a Hurricane along the Louisiana coast late on Sunday evening, August 29, 2021.
The channel closures are needed to remove the submerged dredge pipeline from the HDDA project, the pipeline was installed across the Ship Channel in January 2021.
In order to remove the submerged dredge pipeline two channel closures will be required, one closure is needed to dredge over the top of the pipeline and the other will be used to remove the submerged dredge pipeline.
UPDATED: ANTICIPATED CHANNEL CLOSURE: CANCELLED
TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2021:
0600 hours to 1800 hours: all vessels are expected to be restricted from transiting between Mile 2.0 AHP and Mile 0 (Head of Passes). During this closure the sediment over the submerged pipeline will be mechanically excavated by the cutterhead dredge ILLINOIS.
A revised schedule has not been developed yet but a likely scenario would be for the two closures listed below to be utilized to extract the submerged dredge pipeline.
UPDATED: ANTICIPATED CHANNEL CLOSURE:
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2021:
0600 hours to 1800 hours: all vessels are restricted from transiting between Mile 2.0 AHP and Mile 0 (Head of Passes). During this closure the submerged pipeline will be refloated and removed from the excavated trench across the Ship Channel.
UPDATED: BACKUP CHANNEL CLOSURE:
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2021:
0600 hours to 1800 hours: all vessels are expected to be restricted from transiting between Mile 2.0 AHP and Mile 0 (Head of Passes). This scheduled back-up closure would only be utilized if the scheduled operations above were not successful or were delayed.
Vessels intending to arrive or depart the Mississippi River on the day of a scheduled closure must arrive at Pilottown (outbound) no later than 0400 hours or Southwest Pass Entrance Light (inbound) no later than 0330 hours on the morning of the scheduled closures.
