SHEP Inner Harbor Dredging

This was the third and final phase of a dredging initiative for the greater Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP). Weeks was brought on to deepen the harbor channel across a distance of 70,000 feet from Tybee Island east of Savannah to the western limit of the project area in downtown Savanah. This was a combination of maintenance work to bring the harbor back to its baseline depth, with the majority of the work being a new deepening of the channel, resulting in the removal of 10.5M cubic yards of sediment using our JS Chatry Cutter Head dredge.

Interestingly the Weeks 506 Bucket Dredge was also utilized to screen through the dredged sediment known to have Revolutionary War munitions. During the dredging Weeks dug up pieces of Revolutionary War ships, cannons, cannon balls, anchors and other artifacts from a historic battle called the Siege of Savannah in 1779. As a result of these findings, a full study run by the Common Wealth Heritage Group was conducted and Weeks brought on a representative archaeologist as part of our team. Read more about what Weeks unearthed here.

Additionally, about 4M cubic yards of the new material dredged had traces of cadmium, a heavy metal, that Weeks placed in an upland disposal area, monitored closely and eventually caped in order to prevent wildlife from accessing it.