- Dredging maintains the depth in existing ports, marinas and channels to provide ready and safe passage for commercial and recreational vessels as well as create new or deeper access or berths for vessels.
- This may mean the deepening and widening of channels and anchorages as well as the excavation of basins and marinas from areas of previously dry land to provide material for specific purposes, e.g. beaches in coastal areas subject to erosion are sometimes ‘renourished’ with sand dredged from other areas.
- To bypass an artificial structure , such as a breakwater, that is an obstacle to the normal pattern of sediment movement along the coast. Dredging prevents a build up of material to be deposited down stream of the obstacle to allow the natural sediment transport process to occur.
Key benefits of a dredging schedule include:
• A budgeted expense rather than an unpredictable cost.
• Uninterrupted use of the marina.
• A reduction in problems caused by the permitting process often related to sediment disposal.