Dredging begins in Moriches Bay, says Army Corps

Dredging began this week in Moriches Bay to restore a federal navigation channel there to its proper depth, the federal Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday.

An estimated 35,000 cubic yards of sand will be removed from the channel and placed on nearby Cupsogue Beach to stave off erosion, officials said.

The $1.45 million effort is the second phase of a project to improve boater safety by scooping away sediment that had piled up in that section of the 33-mile Long Island Intracoastal Waterway Channel, which runs from the Great South Bay to Shinnecock Canal. The channel is 100 feet wide and supposed to be 6 deep feet deep. This spring the Corps dredged areas in Moriches Bay where the channel had become the most shallow.

This reach of the channel was previously dredged in 2003, when 53,000 cubic yards of sand was removed, according to the Corps. The Shinnecock Bay reach was dredged over the winter of 2003 and 2004.