This is my weekly Rhine Channel update for October 10-14:

Hi everyone,

This is my weekly Rhine Channel update for October 10-14:

·        Please see the attached figure.  You’ll notice that the red area is continuing to shrink as it turns to blue which means that the dredging is complete.  In order to accommodate the three marinas on the peninsula side near 19^th and 20^th Streets, we hurried to finalize their area so their slips could be occupied again.  Hence, we carved out a section of Phase III and finalized that area before the rest of the phase was complete. 

·        Those three marinas previously mentioned were out of their slips a total of 16 days which is a record for the project!!  This is directly related to Dutra’s dredging efficiency during the first phases of the project. 

·        Pile driving activities in the Rhine are completely over, as the last pile was driven on Wednesday. We really appreciated everyone’s patience during this tricky part of the project.

·        Unofficially, Dutra has finished dredging in the Rhine Channel.  We’ll still need to do confirmatory sediment testing, so we’ll know for sure next week.  We’re feeling pretty confident that they won’t have to re-dredge the main channel in Phase III, but we’ll let the chemistry give us the direction we need.

·        There’s still some outstanding carpentry related issues on the docks in each phase, and Dutra is steadily working on taking care of these, probably on Monday and Tuesday next week.

·        Dutra spent yesterday and today dredging in the docks along the Lido Peninsula side of the channel.  This was extremely delicate dredging as the crane barge was used instead of the traditional excavator barge.  The reason for this is because the crane is able to reach out further (next to the bulkhead) unlike the excavator.   Also, each individual small slip was carefully dredged – not an easy task!  Please see the attached pictures that show this process.

·        The next, and last component of the project is dredging the American Legion marina on Wednesday.  This will be challenging because we’ll be pulling 26 piles out of the marina, then floating the entire marina over in front of the Marina Park property for a while.  This will allow Dutra to gain access to the inside of the Legion’s marina with their large equipment.  Then, the marina will be floated back to its original location and 26 piles will be driven in place.  All in all, this operation might take a couple weeks.

·        Interesting fact No. 11:  The clamshell bucket used for crane dredging holds 6 cubic yards of material.  The crane on the barge is not designed to be a “fast cycle” crane traditionally used for dredging. However, because there were limited quantities of hard-to-reach material for this project, Dutra improvised with this slower type crane…and it worked very well.

Thanks again for everyone’s patience as we get through these final steps in the project.

Chris Miller

Harbor Resources Manager

( (949) 644-3043  * cmiller@newportbeachca.gov