Kings Bay Federal Navigation Channel
Maintenance Dredging and Shoreline Protection

Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines are big, the biggest ever built for the United States Navy. With a length of 560 feet and displacement of 18,750 tons, each can carry 24 Trident ballistic missiles.

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia, the east coast home for Ohio-class submarines, is situated nearly 100 miles from the continental shelf. Consequently, the Kings Bay Entrance Channel is one of the longest and deepest in the country.

While employed by Bean Dredging Corporation, contracted to perform maintenance dredging on the channel, Lally performed operations efficiency analyses on the 6,400 cubic yard split hull trailing suction hopper dredge (TSHD) Eagle 1 to optimize production and project quality.

The project encompassed the removal of shoal material within the Inner and Outer Kings Bay Federal Navigation Channel, with beneficial use of the dredged material for beach nourishment. The TSHD hauled the material to within the entrance channel, hooked up to a 30-in. booster pump via floating umbilical pipeline, and pumped out to place beach compatible sand along the eroded shoreline on the northern part of Amelia Island in Nassau County up to 7 miles away. A portion of the dredged material was also used beneficially to renourish the shoreline protecting the historic Civil War-era Fort Clinch.

Lally evaluated performance on the hopper dredge, pump out, and beach fill operations, recognized areas requiring improvement, established a monitoring program, and developed a production optimization report for the operations team. A marked improvement in dredging efficiency was thereafter realized, and the project was completed cost effectively and within schedule for the U.S. Government.

Expertise

Bid Preparation

Production Estimation

Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge (TSHD) Optimization

Location

Kings Bay, Georgia and Amelia Island, Florida USA

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