San Jacinto River Dredging Forecasted to Double

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials extended bid invitations until June 22, 2018 after forecasted dredging material calculations increased for a FEMA funded emergency dredging operation of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River.

“We’ve encouraged bidders to submit questions and this allowed us to revise dredging quantities,” said Gary Stangeland, Interim Chief of Emergency Management at USACE Galveston District. “We were able to recalculate the volume of material needed and therefore extended the bid opening and project finish date.”

Invitations to bid were to be opened yesterday but after contractors questioned the water surface elevations project drawings (plans), new calculations determined the volume of dredged material more than doubled.

Forecasted dredged material increased from 748,000 to 1.8 million cubic yards of material that has shoaled in areas of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River.

In addition, the duration of the project was extended from 180 days to 270 days to allow the winning contractor additional time to remove the increase in material.

“Our process is equitable and efficient as it allows for Corps’ Engineers to interact with vendors that will help us to restore the area to pre-Harvey conditions and help reduce future flooding risks,” said Jeff Neill, USACE Galveston District Contracting Chief. “We’ve publicly posted responses to bidders’ questions to www.projnet.org.”

The scope of the emergency dredging did not change with no additional placement areas needed. Stangeland added that the two placement areas are sufficient to store the recalculated increase in forecasted dredged material.