Printer Friendly Version - North Cove Clearing on Tap for September in Old Saybrook

Old Saybrook’s North Cove Dredging Work Starts in Late September: Boats moored in North Cove must be out of the water by Sept. 17 because contractors will mobilize equipment for the fall dredging project in late September. This photo is a view of North Cove from the Sheffield Street Town Dock. Photo by Becky Coffey/Harbor News

Will the boats return? Perhaps they will, once proper depths in North Cove’s harbor and channel are restored in a major dredging project that begins in September. With that schedule in mind, the Harbor Management Commission wants to alert all boat owners that their craft will have to removed from the harbor no later than Sunday, Sept. 17.

“Usually we ask that all boats be out by Oct. 1. The reason we’re asking for an early removal of boats this year at North Cove is as a safety matter, to protect the boats. Heavy scows and tugs will be there for the dredging by late September,” said Harbor Management Commission Chairman Ray Collins.

North Cove’s last maintenance dredging to clear materials from the harbor floor was in 2009. Due to a shortfall in federal funding at that time, the project could not return the harbor to its design depth and width. Although Congress has authorized an 11-feet depth for this federal harbor of refuge, the 2009 project left the channel depth at eight feet and the harbor at six feet.

In October 2012, North Cove Harbor was hit with Superstorm Sandy; in that single event, the six- or seven-foot clearance in 2009 became just two or three feet in 2012, which meant that the boats with deeper drafts like sailboats were unable to moor there.

“We used to have 150 boats in North Cove. Now we’re down to 90 or less,” said Collins.

In May 2015, the Connecticut State Bonding Commission authorized $7.5 million of funding to offset the cost of an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project to return North Cove harbor to its design depths and widths. A dredging project backlog had prevented the Army Corps from proceeding with the work until now.

“The state funding has already been transferred to the Army Corps for the North Cove work,” said Collins.

The Harbor Management Commission is planning to move forward in the next year on two other major projects: a replacement of the Ferry Road town dock with floating docks and a replacement of the town dock at the end of Sheffield Street.

“We’re in the midst of the project to replace the Ferry Road dock. The design is done, we have the DEEP [Department of Energy & Environmental Protection] permits, and we have the money: About $250,000 is set aside for the project,” said Collins. “After the Ferry Road dock is replaced with a floating dock design, then Sheffield dock will be replaced, adding a larger floating dock.”

Like the Ferry Road dock project, the Sheffield dock project design is done and the DEEP permits acquired. Not yet set aside, however, is the funding to execute this project. Once the dredging work and the Ferry Road dock work are done, Sheffield dock will become the priority project.

Harbor project number two—replacement of the Ferry Road Town Dock, a project already permitted and for which funding is set aside—will also begin soon. Photo by Becky Coffey/Harbor News