Dredging Project Continues For Port Of Baltimore, Removing 2.5M Cubic Yards Of Sediment
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The finish line is just inside the Key Bridge to complete a dredging project that started last December.
"We call it shoaling up," Jeremiah Spiga, of Army Corps Engineers, said. "Basically material settling out in the channels and over time it builds up."
The Army Corps of Engineers oversees the dredging project to make sure the channel is deep enough to keep large ships coming and going from the Port of Baltimore.
In 2018, the Port of Baltimore totaled $60 billion in cargo.
"Typically we're removing anywhere from a million to about two million cubic yards," Spiga said. "This contract ends up being 2.5 million cubic yards."
The reason more material is being dredged this year is because of the record amount of rainfall last year.
The record rains carried millions of tons of sediment into the Chesapeake Bay and the shipping channels.
Thirty cubic meters of sediment is scooped up at a time, and when dredging ends this week, there's enough material to fill M&T Bank Stadium.
"From goal post to goal post," "That material would stack up to nearly a quarter mile in height."
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