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After it is
dredged this winter, the
Occoquan River will be deeper
and wider providing better
accessibility for commercial as
well as larger recreational
vessels.
"This will have a major impact
on the economic vitality of this
waterway," said John Paul
Woodley Jr., assistant secretary
of the Army, to the group
gathered at the Sea, Sea and
Company on Friday morning during
the signing of a formal
agreement on the Occoquan River
Dredging Project.
Aside from Woodley, who
represented the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, officials from the
town of Occoquan, and Prince
William and Fairfax counties
signed off on the $4.7 million
project.
The project will now go out
to bid and is anticipated to be
underway by late November. It
should be completed by
mid-February.
The objective is to eliminate
major problems posed by shoaling
so as to avoid groundings and
damage to vessels as well as
increase the tonnage of
commercial vessels," Woodley
said.
"We're excited to be able to
provide a positive economic
benefit to this community,"
Woodley said. "There is a
four-to-one cost benefit ratio
on this project. That is
comparable to any [dredging]
project anywhere in the
country."
Davis was able to get the
federal funding in part because
much of the Occoquan River is a
Coast Guard-designated channel
that must be maintained. During
the legislative process, Davis
also was able to increase the
required maintenance depth of
the river channel from 6 feet to
9 feet and increase its width to
200 feet. "This is a perfect
example of a grassroots advocacy
in action but it is also a
regional project which helped to
make this happen," Davis said.
Commercial barges as well as
more than 1,500 recreational
boats, which are moored in
marinas in both Prince William
and Fairfax counties, routinely
travel the Occoquan River.
Increasingly over the last few
years, boats have been damaged
and have run aground because of
silt build-up near the mouth of
the river where it is already
was very shallow, said Chris
Webster of the Occoquan River
Maritime Association.
"The dredging is not just
about recreational boating or
the depth of the water," Webster
said. "It's about the viability
of the Occoquan [in regard to
its wildlife and its economic
value.]" If barges did not carry
material to and from the Vulcan
Materials plant along the banks
of the Occoquan River, it would
take large dump trucks about
20,000 trips a year from Prince
William through the rest of
Northern Virginia and across the
Woodrow Wilson bridge to carry
the equivalent, Webster said.
Officials are also hoping
that the Virginia Department of
Transportation will make use of
barges once the river is dredged
as it proceeds with its work to
replace the Va. 123 bridge
across the Occoquan. "That would
take some of the big trucks off
of the roads," Davis said.
Making the Occoquan easier to
navigate, even for larger
vessels, will also aid the town
of Occoquan as it works to
reestablish itself as a port as
it was 200 years ago. The town
recently built a boardwalk along
the river as well as a transient
dock for recreational boaters to
tie on to and visit the town.
"[The dredging] is an
important part of the continued
revitalization of the town,"
said Prince William County
Supervisor Corey Stewart,
R-Occoquan. "The town of
Occoquan has always been the
jewel, the center of the
Occoquan District, the gateway
to Prince William County from
the north. It is a reflection of
the entire county."
INCLUDEPICTURE
News links provided by Prince
William Conservation Alliance
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