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Illinois company awarded $92 million contract to widen, deepen ship channel

Posted at 8:58 AM, Jan 04, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-04 23:26:05-05

Plans to expand of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel to accommodate larger ships are underway, as port officials announced that a contract has been awarded to an Illinois company for some of the work.

A $92 million contract has been awarded to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC, by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Port of Corpus Christi announced Thursday. The company will deepen and widen the Corpus Christi Ship Channel from the Gulf of Mexico to Harbor Island as a part of the Channel Improvement Project.

“The award of this first dredging contract is without a doubt the most important development we will see in 2019,” said Charles W. Zahn, chairman for the Port of Corpus Christi Commission.

In its 128-year history, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has worked on high-profile projects that include the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill cleanup and the deepening of the Port Miami harbor.

“Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is excited to have won the competitive bid for the first phase of the Corpus Christi Deepening project,” said Lasse Petterson, Chief Executive Officer for the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC. “As the largest dredging company in the U.S., we have a long and successful history working in Texas.”

The federal government and the Port of Corpus Christi are funding the $360 million ship channel project.

Port Corpus Christi is the fourth-largest port in the United States in terms of total tonnage.