Proposed legislation that would allow the Ventura Port District to contract for dredging services in a more timely and cost-efficient manner is set for a full Assembly vote.
AB 482, authored by Assemblymember Das Williams , would make way for the Ventura Port District to utilize contractors for inner harbor dredging that have been selected through a competitive bidding process for an annual federal dredging project off the Coast of Ventura County.
“Each year the US Army Corps of Engineers contracts dredging of the Ventura Harbor – entrance channel – with a sizable hydraulic dredge. That’s a federal project ,” said Oscar Peña , General Manager of the Ventura Port. “To be able to use that dredge on projects in the inner harbor could cut the Port Districts costs in half. This just makes sense for tax payers.”
“It’s not the dredging in the Ventura Harbor itself that is the burden of the cost; it’s the mobilization cost of equipment that can greatly escalate the expense for these maintenance dredging projects. This bill would essentially allow for one mobilization process instead of two on projects allowing the local harbor district to use more efficient equipment and drastically cut costs, ” Asm. Williams said. “ We have included appropriate amendments from both parties and I agree with the chairman of the Local Government committee who said that ‘this is a good bill that has support on both sides.'”
The proposed legislation passed the Assembly Local Government committee on Jan 11.
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Dredging Today Staff, January 24, 2012;