The Westport Marina dredging project, which began in August 2019, has wrapped and now, for the first time in 40 years, the boat basin is dredged to proper depths for the various vessels that use it, according to the Port of Grays Harbor.

“We are extremely pleased to see this important project come to a close. It will no doubt serve our diverse users for several decades to come,” said Port Commissioner Tom Quigg.

The Westport Marina is the hub for the state’s number one commercial seafood landing and a sport fishing charter fleet. Decades of no dredging activity at all had made it increasingly difficult for vessels to navigate the marina, especially larger commercial vessels.

Early in the project, the Port said the cost of the project was $4.65 million. The cost was covered by $2.5 million in state capital budget funds, $300,000 in county funds and the rest in Port of Grays Harbor funds.

About 130,000 cubic yards of material was dredged, with approximately 80,000 cubic yards being disposed of offshore and 50,000 cubic yards being placed in a constructed upland disposal facility near the marina boat launch south of Yearout Drive.

Dredging was split into three phases: The first, conducted by Bergeson Construction, included the disposal to the upland site via a mostly underground pipeline from the marina to the disposal site. Pacific Pile and Marine handled phase two, with the dredged material piped out to the Point Chehalis disposal site offshore.

The contract for the third and final phase was awarded to Underwater Earth Movers in August. Phase three began in September and just recently wrapped up.

“We want to thank all of our marina tenants and users for their cooperation and patience throughout this important project,” shared Port of Grays Harbor Commission President Stan Pinnick. “We also want to thank the State of Washington and Grays Harbor County for partnering with us to make this project possible. With dredging of the boat basin complete, the Westport Marina now stands ready to serve the users of Washington State’s number one commercial seafood landing port for many years to come.”

The project required the cooperating of the marina’s tenants at 17 floats and 550 slips, and working around multiple commercial and sport fishing seasons and limited dredging window to lower impacts on various fish species.

“I want to acknowledge and thank all of the marina staff and our contracts and projects team on a job-well done,” said Quigg. “As you can imagine with a 550 slip marina that is also the number one commercial seafood landing port in the state, there were a lot of moving pieces.”