By Madina Toure
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials gave lawmakers and reporters a boat tour of the ongoing dredging project in the Flushing Bay Monday afternoon.
Col. David Caldwell, the official overseeing the project, led the tour on a vessel that departed from the World’s Fair Marina in Flushing and traveled to the dredging site off the eastern side of LaGuardia Airport. Riders got to see the big bucket on the end of the dredge’s crane go down in the water, pull up the dirt and put it into a barge.
“We have survey vessels that go out and we survey the area to try to make sure it’s safe and then on a periodic basis, we try to dredge the different navigation channels as needed,” Caldwell said. “That way we’re using taxpayer money as responsibly as we can.”
U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) said it was her first time witnessing the project.
“This is something that the Army Corps has obviously taken the lead on and we’re very thankful for all their hard work,” Meng said.
In September, the Army Corps awarded a $12.1 million contract to Donjon Marine Co. to perform maintenance dredging of the Flushing Bay and Creek.
The contract entails deepening the navigation channel—the Federal Channel, which runs along the length of the Flushing Bay—to about 15 feet and removing 166,170 cubic yards of sediment from the water.
The project, which started in October and will conclude ahead of schedule by Dec. 26, was about 52 percent complete as of No. 25. No accidents occurred over roughly 2,400 man hours. The dredging will allow ships and boats to better navigate through Flushing Bay and improve trade, commerce, recreation and public safety.
“It’s not just maintaining the federal channel but also restoring it back to what it was decades if not centuries ago and I think that’s something that whoever resides or does business there is going to appreciate,” U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) said.
Officials showed riders old barges that form blocks floating around in the bay that the Army Corps cleans up on a regular basis. Caldwell said petroleum products and combined sewer outfalls contaminate the soil in the navigation channel.
But he explained that the Army Corps is authorized by Congress to spend federal taxpayer money to maintain the federal navigation channel, not the concerns of mom-and-pop marinas and businesses in Flushing and College Point.
“If somebody is positioned right along there, absolutely they’ll benefit a little more than somebody that’s not positioned right along the channel, but that just happens to be the proximity of where their business is to the channel and nothing more than that,” he said.
State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) said she has lived in the area for many years and had not seen the project before.
“It’s got to help the community,” Stavisky said. “It’s got to help environmentally but also economically.”
City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) said the project is crucial to improving the area’s quality of life.
“Before we develop Flushing West, we’re talking about building 2,000 apartments around here along the river, but who wants to live here if it smells terrible?” Koo said.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
