Lower Mississippi River (LMR) Dredging Update 11316

The Corps’ Mississippi Valley New Orleans (MVN) has received confirmation that Corps’ Headquarters has approved the Red Flag request.  The Corps’ Philadelphia District hopper dredge McFARLAND will get underway and head to Southwest Pass no later than Friday, January 15, 2016. The McFARLAND should begin dredging by Tuesday, January 19, 2016.  

The channel in Southwest Pass is quickly becoming deficient according to the latest Corps’ surveys and draft restrictions in the Bar Pilots route could soon become necessary.   The most deficient areas of the channel are the Head of Passes (HoP) and Cubits Gap.  The Big River Coalition is preparing an updated funding request that will demonstrate the need for significant additional funding to maintain the Mississippi River Ship Channel (Baton Rouge to the Gulf of Mexico).  Preliminary figures indicate that the MVN is $90-$100 million short of the funding needed to maintain full channel dimensions on the critical Ship Channel for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2016.

Please see the attached for complete details.