Budget Box: 2024 Dredging Project

 Landings Harbor Marina has a breakwater that surrounds the entire basin, with a single opening leading to the Wilmington River. This breakwater protects the wet slips and prevents currents from flowing continuously within the basin, allowing silt that enters with the flood tides to settle on the bottom. A bubbler curtain was installed in the entrance to the basin at the end of the 2023 dredging project under a research and monitoring permit through the US Army Corp of Engineers and Georgia Department of Natural Resources (see video below). The use of this bubbler curtain is designed to prevent high volumes of material from entering and settling inside the marina basin, thus reducing the costs associated with dredging in addition to managing the material storage capacity available at the settling ponds.

The 2024 dredging project was completed by Dolan Yacht Services, which also completed the 2022 and 2023 dredging projects at Landings Harbor Marina. The project began in late February and was completed in late March. Throughout this time, the Marinas department worked diligently to create a schedule allowing boat owners to access their vessels as readily as possible.

The project was included in TLA’s Operating Budget for 2024 in the amount of $130,000. After completion, the total project cost was $136,935, which is $6,935 more than budget. However, the 2024 cost was $10,642 less than the total expenses in 2023, which were $147,577. Although it is only one year, we hope to see this trend continue.