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Columbia Dredging Phase Complete by Staff Albany Democrat-Herald, December 22, 2005

The first phase of deepening the shipping channel in the Columbia River is complete, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports.

In announcing the milestone, the Corps said Wednesday that the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company's dredge Sugar Island deepened the channel from 40 to 43 feet. Having removed more than 2.6 million cubic yards of sand, the Sugar Island, under a contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, successfully completed deepening 27 miles of the 103.5-mile channel between Astoria and Portland/Vancouver.

"After 15 years just to start dredging, it's almost like a dream to hear they finished deepening more than 25 percent of the channel in less than a year," said Ken O'Hollaren, Columbia River Channel Coalition president and Port of Longview executive director.

"The Corps and Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company have truly made outstanding progress on this critical project."

Dredging in the upper part of the river also involved the Port of Portland's pipeline dredge Oregon. Working in tandem with the Sugar Island to rehandle stockpiled sand, the Oregon pumped the sand into the Port of Vancouver's Gateway upland disposal area. The dredge Oregon should finish rehandle work later this month.

The Corps now is working on plans to determine how many additional miles it can deepen next year using a recently approved $15 million federal appropriation for work in 2006.