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Dredging Begins for Old Saybrook's North Cove

The $4.3 million state-funded dredging of North Cove has begun and soon boaters won’t have to wait for high tide to leave the harbor for points beyond.

“This will restore the cove and entrance channel [to authorized depths]. No more watching the tides,” said Connecticut Port Authority Chairman Scott Bates at the Nov. 14 event to mark the start of the project.

The North Cove harbor and entrance channel were designated as a federal navigation harbor site in 1965. Since then, several maintenance dredging projects have been undertaken to return the harbor and channel to design depths, with the most recent operation in 2009.

In the past eight years, river flows and natural tidal actions have deposited significant shoals in both North Cove harbor and the entrance channel, in some areas reducing the depth to as low as four feet, according to the Connecticut Port Authority. An entrance channel depth of up to 11 feet is authorized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and in the anchorage area.

“The maritime economy is our economic engine down here,” said State Representative Devin Carney. “This [dredging project] will allow easier and safer access to North Cove and will be a benefit to Old Saybrook and to all of Connecticut.”

At the same time as the need for harbor dredging has increased, federal funding to perform such dredging has been cut dramatically. That is the reason that Governor Malloy and State Legislature created a new quasi-public entity, the Connecticut Port Authority, in 2014. The Authority, with offices at Saybrook Junction in Old Saybrook, is responsible for marketing and coordinating the development of the state’s ports and marine economy. A key focus is to pursue and secure funding for maintenance dredging and for small and large harbor infrastructure projects across the state.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing the maintenance dredging project in North Cove “...to remove 290,000 cubic yards of fine grain sediments, in order to restore the width and depth authorized throughout the cove and its entrance channel, ” according to Connecticut Port Authority information distributed at the project kick-off event.

The dredging work will continue through the winter months with completion scheduled for spring, 2018.

As of this month, the Connecticut Port Authority is funding active dredging projects at two sites: the lower Housatonic River in Stratford and Milford, and North Cove in Old Saybrook, with a total funding commitment of almost $14 million. Both harbor locations are Federal Navigation Projects under the direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Another $4 million has been requested by the Connecticut Port Authority from the State Bonding Commission to support 18 municipal projects, including five dredging works.