Funding for dredging the channel on the western end of Milford Haven has been approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, using funds provided under the American Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced in a joint news release last week that $5.675 million has been awarded to dredge the channel and repair an adjacent jetty.
Mathews County Planning and Zoning Director Thomas Jenkins said he had been working with the Army Corps and the Gibson family of the Islander Motel and Restaurant for the past couple of years on arranging a spoils site in order to get the channel dredged. The dredge spoils are slated to be placed on the beach at the Islander, he said, but the jetty there needs to be rebuilt first to stop the sand from going back into the channel.
A dredging project for the other end of Milford Haven, at Hole in the Wall, received $1.5 million in Army Corps funding last year, said Jenkins, and the only thing holding that up is the permitting process. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission has already issued its permit, he said, while U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Army Corps of Engineers still need to issue their permits.
“As soon as we get the permits, we can put it out for bids,” he said.
Other projects
Andria Allmond of the public affairs office of the USACE Norfolk District said in a press release that the Biden administration had provided $22.81 billion in supplemental funding to the U.S. Army for civil works under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the 2022 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, and $328 million of the funding was allocated to the Norfolk District of the Army Corps, of which Mathews is a part.
The funds will be used for dredging and building resilience in the face of global climate change while also “benefitting economically disadvantaged communities and regions and advancing environmental justice,” said Allmond. It will be allocated to operation and maintenance work, new-start construction projects, and support for continuing authority programs. Most of the funds will go toward work plans for coastal projects, she said, with the City of Norfolk receiving the largest portion—$249 million for Norfolk Coastal Storm Risk Management and $69 million for the Norfolk Harbor Deepening project.
The harbor channel project will make transit in and out of the Port of Virginia safer for some of the largest ships in the Atlantic Ocean, said Allmond, allowing for larger ships and, therefore, lower transportation costs. These savings are passed on to the general population as lower commodity costs, she said.