New Haven's Dredging Bid: The Cost of a Second Season

The price of a second season

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock won New Haven Harbor's improvement dredging on 20 August 2026. Its bid priced the second season's mobilisation and demobilisation at USD 7.989 million, against USD 3.75 million for the first. Together, those entries account for USD 11.739 million of its bid, with excavation and placement priced separately. For an estimator planning a seasonal dredging campaign, the return to site deserves its own production and cash account. [1,3]

The two official award records use different financial bases. SAM.gov records USD 69.4692 million for the base and all options. The federal announcement records USD 68.8692 million awarded and obligated, with estimated completion on 31 March 2028. The certified bid abstract supplies an exact numerical bridge between those two amounts. [1,2,3]

The USD 600,000 bridge

Great Lakes' base bid was USD 68.213 million. Coordination-zone dredging options add USD 165,000 for sand going to the shellfish habitat and USD 491,200 for material going to CLDS or the two borrow pits. Base plus those coordination items equals USD 68.8692 million, exactly the amount in the federal award announcement. [2,3]

The remaining USD 600,000 prices sixteen coordination-zone work-delay days at USD 37,500 per day. Adding them produces the SAM all-options value. This identifies the specific option account to reconcile with the executed award schedule. The published notices and bid arithmetic establish the amounts; exercised options and the events that make a delay day payable remain contract-schedule questions. [1,2,3]

Rock pricing carries the lead over the next bidder

Curtin's USD 83.952 million total was the next-lowest opened bid. Great Lakes' USD 14.483 million lead over Curtin is concentrated in the rock account. At the abstract's 63,000-cubic-yard estimated rock quantity, Great Lakes priced drilling, blasting, dredging and reef placement at USD 13.86 million. Curtin priced the same rows at USD 29.616 million. That USD 15.756 million difference exceeds the difference between their complete bids. ^[3]

Other accounts offset part of that advantage. Great Lakes' combined seasonal mobilisation price was USD 4.749 million higher than Curtin's. Its ordinary-material account was USD 1.713 million lower; its sand account was USD 493,000 lower. The table exposes a specific commercial position: a higher allowance for returning plant to site, combined with a substantially lower price for the rock operation. These are submitted prices, not disclosed contractor costs. ^[3]

Rock removal carries a different production system from ordinary dredging. The 2025 USACE briefing described very hard altered granite schists, a highly variable rock surface and confined-blasting controls. Drilling, test blasts, observers and monitoring belong in the rock programme. A uniform rate derived from the contract total and a headline volume would spread those commitments across unrelated material. A production estimate needs the rock work, ordinary material, habitat sand and seasonal plant moves separately. [4, slides 24-29]

IMWO original calculation and graphic

The receiving site can close before the main dredging season

USACE's April 2026 launch assigned approximately 900,000 cubic yards of sand to shellfish habitat and nearly 700,000 cubic yards of fines to historic borrow pits created during I-95 construction; excavated rock was intended for a new reef. The July abstract prices 850,000 cubic yards in the base sand account, with coordination-zone sand separate. Matching the priced material account to the receiving site's function and remaining capacity is part of the production estimate. [3,5]

The 2025 planning briefing gave West River and Morris Cove approach depths of approximately 12 and 10 feet MLLW. Those shallow approaches constrain the loaded scow and transfer arrangement serving each pit. The bidder has to test the receiving route alongside excavation output: a dredge can fill barges faster than a shallow route can clear them. [4, slides 14-15]

That briefing also distinguished an October-to-January local-placement window from the longer October-to-March deep-water and rock programme. The 2026 bid schedule separately prices coordination-zone work due by 31 December 2026. The dated planning windows explain the scheduling mechanism; the executed 2026 conditions control the working calendar. Missing an early receiving window can leave plant committed while the work available to it changes. [3,4, slide 28]

A seasonal estimate should therefore connect each material quantity to its receiving site, loaded access, release date and last permitted placement date. The same schedule can show the point at which a delayed section would compete with work already allocated to the second season. This makes a decision to hold, redeploy or remobilise plant visible before a monthly total obscures it.

Price the handover section as well as the excavation

USACE's planning approach called for agreed acceptance sections, multibeam after-dredge surveys and survey calibration between the contractor and government before each season. It tied section handover to achieving authorised grade. A seasonal work plan can use that section structure to reserve survey time, identify high spots and allow correction before the environmental window closes. The 2025 briefing anticipated three seasons; the 2026 bid instead carries two mobilisation entries. Those dated programmes need their own versions in the estimate. [3,4, slide 31]

A section-level seasonal account connects the delivery team's production plan with the priced work. Record the released quantity, excavation method, receiving route, expected trips, survey and correction allowance, mobilisation commitment and the applicable payment event. Carry coordination delay in a separate account with its contractual trigger. The bid's USD 37,500 daily entry is a specific priced item; charter exposure and the cost of a missed season require the contractor's own resource plan.

New Haven's award now gives suppliers and subcontractors a named purchaser-side contract and a selected prime. The bid detail gives them a sharper starting point for technical discussions: which rock or ordinary-material section, which placement route, which season and which release condition their equipment would serve.