Project record

Baltimore Harbor 2026 maintenance dredging and Cox Creek routing

DB Avalon clamshell bucket lifting fine-grained sediment during Baltimore Harbor maintenance dredging in June 2026

Jeremy Todd / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District

Curtin Maritime's hybrid clamshell dredge DB Avalon is removing approximately 1.46 million cubic yards from Baltimore Harbor approach channels under the 2026 maintenance programme. Material is loaded into scows and taken to the Cox Creek Dredged Material Containment Facility.

Project signal

Construction in United States

Current status Curtin Maritime's DB Avalon was operating in the Patapsco River on 16 June 2026 Source confidence Confirmed

Location

United States / Americas

Segment

Port infrastructure

Status

Curtin Maritime's DB Avalon was operating in the Patapsco River on 16 June 2026 / Confirmed

Last checked

18 July 2026

Coverage

Related sectors

Port infrastructure is the primary work classification. Related sectors connect this record to adjacent marine delivery and market coverage.

Subject index

Related subjects

These subject pages bring together related projects, technical articles, reports, and evidence methods.

Project anatomy

Contract scope and delivery roles

Client / authority
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, with Maryland Port Administration
Delivery parties
Curtin Maritime
Contract route
Competitively awarded federal maintenance-dredging contract executed by Curtin Maritime. The current 2026 story publishes the 1.46-million-cubic-yard scope but not a contract value; USD 229 million is a broader fiscal-year appropriation and the USD 33.5 million award belongs to the preceding fiscal-year package.
Execution window
Winter through late spring 2026, with DB Avalon operations observed on 16 June 2026.
Works package
Mechanical clamshell dredging of approximately 1.46 million cubic yards of fine-grained silt and clay from Baltimore Harbor approach channels, loading into scows and transport to the Cox Creek Dredged Material Containment Facility
Marine interfaces
Hybrid-powered clamshell dredging in the Patapsco River, 24-hour rotating operations, scow loading, tug movements, Cox Creek offloading and maintenance of authorized 50-foot channels that are 800 to 1,000 feet wide
Commercial evidence boundary
The current contractor, plant, quantity, channel geometry and Cox Creek route are public. The current contract value is not. The broader USD 229 million fiscal-year appropriation, the preceding USD 33.5 million fiscal-year award and STAR's separate remediation and reuse programme should not be merged into one contract value or delivery claim.

Project timeline

Material developments

Dated events that changed scope, counterparties, delivery, commissioning or operating status.

Open this project in the Change Log

DB Avalon was operating in the Patapsco River

USACE field reporting and exact-site photographs confirm active clamshell excavation and scow loading under the current 1.46-million-cubic-yard package. They do not establish final production or accepted channel condition.

Source

USACE published the current approach-channel quantity and geometry

Baltimore District identified approximately 1.46 million cubic yards before spring 2026 and restated the 50-foot authorized depth and 800-to-1,000-foot channel widths.

Source

MPA set out the STAR capacity-recovery plan

Port Commission minutes record a five-year plan to reclaim 1.2 million cubic yards of Cox Creek capacity. The planned recovery remains separate from dredged material received in 2026 and from verified reuse output.

Source

Evidence gap

What remains unverified

Outstanding evidence

  • Measured excavation against the approximately 1.46-million-cubic-yard contract scope
  • Scow movements and documented receipts at Cox Creek
  • Authorized 50-foot channel depth, allowable overdepth and post-dredge hydrography
  • Sediment characterization and material-routing compliance
  • Completion and USACE acceptance of the current maintenance package
  • STAR remediation and opening of the first 26-acre parcel
  • Verified capacity recovered against the separate 50,000-cubic-yard 2026 target and five-year 1.2-million-cubic-yard plan

Related records 2

Reporting status

Construction, confirmed confidence

Last checked 18 July 2026 across 7 cited sources. The dated timeline above carries the project events.

Last checked 18 July 2026 Cited sources 7

Sources and related records

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Source collections

Project sources 7