Dredging

The federal government injected about $1.75 million in additional funding for the dredging of Newport Harbor, Councilman Mike Henn announced Tuesday. The city's roughly $7.8-million project would bring the pleasure harbor closer to its original depths, but funding obstacles and regulatory approvals have held up the process . "That's a tremendous advance here," said Henn, who had planned to raise some of the funds from private parties interested in the harbor. Henn asked City Manager Dave Kiff to consider making up the remaining $250,000, which would increase the city's contribution from $2.5 million to about $2.75 million.

The latest phase of Newport Beach's harbor dredging is underway, with giant vessels removing thousands of yards of toxic sediment from Lido Isle. The sediment will be sent the Port of Long Beach for disposal in time to meet a June 30 deadline. The $6.5-million undertaking launched May 2 and will focus on the Lower Bay. Sediment off West Coast Highway, the south side of Lido, the north side of Balboa Island and an area near the Coast Guard station will be hauled away. Long Beach will use the dirt as fill to help expand its port.

Deepa Bharath The notorious El Nino storms four years ago did more damage to local bays and marinas than meets the eye, apparently. Plazi Miller, vice president of Shellmaker Inc., said his company has been hired to dig out a portion of several hundred tons of sediment that washed over from the upper bay into the channels after the storms. "It's causing a lot of problems," he said. "During a low tide, boats can't get in and out of the marina."

MIKE WHITEHEAD Ahoy. Well, I'm off again cruising on the high seas this week, but don't worry, I will be back just in time for my Sunday radio show. I am on two different voyages. On one, I will be aboard with someone whom most of you in Newport Harbor will remember -- Marty Kasules. Remember Marty? He was the Newport harbormaster, and he retired this year to set sail on his Uniflite motor yacht. Well, he planned to join the Baha HaHa cruisers, but instead, Kasules is putting his yacht on a Dockwise transport ship.

A San Diego-based engineering contractor will begin dredging in the Newport Harbor in late April, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday. R.E. Staite Engineering, the low bidder for the project, was awarded the $6.3-million contract, said Greg Fuderer, spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles Division. An exact start date had not been selected as of Friday. "The city is excited to start this dredging project after nearly 10 years of planning," Harbor Resources Manager Chris Miller wrote in an email.

Homeowners along Newport Harbor will have to contend with the noise and lights of dredging crews working around the clock over the next two months, city officials said. Newport Beach's harbor resources manager, Chris Miller, told the City Council on Tuesday that dredging crews wouldn't need to work every night, just nights when tides were high enough. The crews have to finish their work by June 30, when they lose the chance to dump the dredged soil for new use at the Port of Long Beach, he said.

With one deadline missed, Newport Beach officials now have until June to get the next phase of the city's harbor dredging project underway. Material scooped from areas near the south side of Lido Isle, the north side of Balboa Island, West Coast Highway, the Coast Guard Station and other areas was to be transported for disposal to the Port of Long Beach by March 14. However, that deadline was missed due to complications, Harbor Resources Manager...

The California Coastal Commission on Wednesday approved Newport Beach's Rhine Channel restoration project. The commissioners gave the go-ahead to dredge 150,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment from the waterway near Cannery Village and dump it at the Port of Long Beach . The approval is the latest step in the process to clean up waste from shipyards, canneries, boat-building and metal plating facilities that operated there for...

It took four years, $17 million and some pestering of the federal government by Newport Beach officials, but the dredging of Upper Newport Bay is done. In his monthly update to the Harbor Commission last month, Harbor Resources Manager Chris Miller told the group that more than 1.8 million cubic yards of sediment had been moved and the contractor would be demobilized by Oct. 27. The Back Bay project, which started in 2006, intended to improve the natural habitat of some endangered birds and reduce the sediment flow into the harbor.

Homeowners along Newport Harbor will have to contend with the noise and lights of dredging crews working around the clock over the next two months, city officials said. Newport Beach's harbor resources manager, Chris Miller, told the City Council on Tuesday that dredging crews wouldn't need to work every night, just nights when tides were high enough. The crews have to finish their work by June 30, when they lose the chance to dump the dredged soil for new use at the Port of Long Beach, he said.

The latest phase of Newport Beach's harbor dredging is underway, with giant vessels removing thousands of yards of toxic sediment from Lido Isle. The sediment will be sent the Port of Long Beach for disposal in time to meet a June 30 deadline. The $6.5-million undertaking launched May 2 and will focus on the Lower Bay. Sediment off West Coast Highway, the south side of Lido, the north side of Balboa Island and an area near the Coast Guard station will be hauled away. Long Beach will use the dirt as fill to help expand its port.

A San Diego-based engineering contractor will begin dredging in the Newport Harbor in late April, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday. R.E. Staite Engineering, the low bidder for the project, was awarded the $6.3-million contract, said Greg Fuderer, spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles Division. An exact start date had not been selected as of Friday. "The city is excited to start this dredging project after nearly 10 years of planning," Harbor Resources Manager Chris Miller wrote in an email.

With one deadline missed, Newport Beach officials now have until June to get the next phase of the city's harbor dredging project underway. Material scooped from areas near the south side of Lido Isle, the north side of Balboa Island, West Coast Highway, the Coast Guard Station and other areas was to be transported for disposal to the Port of Long Beach by March 14. However, that deadline was missed due to complications, Harbor Resources Manager...

Last week, I sat down with Harbor Resources Manager Chris Miller and asked him a few questions. Harbor Resources is structured under the city of Newport Beach's Public Works Department. It's tasked with managing everything on the waterside of our harbor's bulkheads. This includes piers, dredging, pump out stations, city codes, complaints and permits pertaining to our harbor. Miller grew up in Newport Beach. As a child, he sailed sabots in Balboa Yacht Club's junior program.

The federal government injected about $1.75 million in additional funding for the dredging of Newport Harbor, Councilman Mike Henn announced Tuesday. The city's roughly $7.8-million project would bring the pleasure harbor closer to its original depths, but funding obstacles and regulatory approvals have held up the process . "That's a tremendous advance here," said Henn, who had planned to raise some of the funds from private parties interested in the harbor. Henn asked City Manager Dave Kiff to consider making up the remaining $250,000, which would increase the city's contribution from $2.5 million to about $2.75 million.

Moving one step closer to dredging the main harbor, the Newport Beach City Council on Tuesday will likely allocate $2.5 million toward a project planned by the federal government. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to dredge around parts of Lido Isle, Balboa Island and in some other channels. Since it was first built in the 1930s, Newport Harbor has only had sporadic dredging, city officials say. They hope this will be the first phase of a larger project to bring the entire bay to its original depths, though first they have to scrap together city, county and federal funds - even private donations.

Editorial writers mostly use their space to identify, and often rail against, problems. But on occasion we like to laud a job well done. Today is one of those days. So here's a hat tip to Newport Beach, which finished the dredging of the Rhine Channel a month ahead of schedule. The work was performed by Dutra Dredging, which transported some 90,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment to Long Beach, where the local port will use it as fill dirt for a construction project. The partnership with Long Beach resulted in generous cost savings for Newport, which would have otherwise had to truck the dirt inland for expensive disposal.