The average age of the government-owned dredges is 70, Chambers said. These additional dredges should be under contract within the next 30 days. The Vicksburg and Memphis Engineer Districts are each acquiring one additional contract cutterhead dredge for harbor dredging efforts, Chambers said. There is also a contract dustpan dredge, the Wallace McGeorge, focusing on deep-draft work and three contract hopper dredges on the Lower Mississippi, with one of those focusing on deep-draft crossings and the other two at Southwest Pass. On the Lower Mississippi, the dustpan dredge Jadwin is at work, along with contract cutters working in Memphis and Vicksburg harbors. The government cutterhead Goetz is among those, along with the dustpan dredges the Hurley and Potter. Of the 17 dredges operating, seven mechanical dredges are on the Upper Mississippi. This year, Chambers said, the Corps is trying to get ahead by dredging harbors earlier, well before harvest season. Some port captains were reticent to allow dredging last year because that would have caused a temporary shutdown of the harbor while dredging was taking place, and they wanted to get out as many shipments as possible before the low water shut down operations. “We made sure that we got a couple of extra dredges so we can dredge more harbors at the same time this year so we don’t get behind the power curve.” “The harbors were heavily impacted last year,” he said. There are already 17 dredges operating throughout the system, Chambers said. The Corps is stepping up efforts to combat low water well in advance, he said. He noted that recent rains have been helpful for the short term, “but in order to get us back in those mean ranges where we’re all comfortable, it’s going to take weeks of rain, based on these drought conditions.”
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