Project record

Mobile Harbor operations and maintenance sediment routing

Aerial view of the Deer River marsh and shoreline beneficial-use site beside Mobile Harbor in August 2024

Courtesy photo / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District via DVIDS, public domain

Mobile District removes approximately 6 million cubic yards from Mobile Harbor in a typical year, including about 4 million cubic yards from the Bay Channel. The current federal standard allows upland placement, thin-layer placement, the Sand Island Beneficial Use Area and the Mobile ocean disposal site; the route for each contract still depends on material, funding, permits and available capacity.

Project signal

Delivery in United States

Treat the 6-million-cubic-yard figure as annual programme scale, not a current solicitation quantity. For each package, identify the maintained reach, sediment class, plant, measured quantity and permitted destination. From 1 October 2026, also test whether a route falls inside Alabama's statutory beneficial-use definition and whether federal funding and approved in-state capacity are available.

Current status USACE lists four current federal-standard placement routes; Alabama Code Section 33-7-13 takes effect on 1 October 2026 Source confidence Confirmed

Location

United States / Americas

Segment

Port infrastructure

Status

USACE lists four current federal-standard placement routes; Alabama Code Section 33-7-13 takes effect on 1 October 2026 / Confirmed

Evidence reviewed

20 July 2026

Controlled taxonomy

Related sectors

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Knowledge context

Related knowledge topics

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Project anatomy

Scope, counterparties, and execution logic

Client / authority
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District
Delivery parties
Package-level delivery contractors not identified in the controlling programme sources
Contract route
Recurring federally funded operations-and-maintenance contracts. The current programme pages define the channel responsibility and permitted placement routes but do not identify one controlling 2026 solicitation, contractor or contract value.
Execution window
Recurring annual maintenance. Alabama Code Section 33-7-13 is scheduled to take effect on 1 October 2026, with implementation dependent on agency rules, federal beneficial-use funding and approved in-state site capacity.
Works package
Maintenance dredging across the Mobile Harbor federal navigation channel and routing of suitable material among upland sites, thin-layer placement areas, the Sand Island Beneficial Use Area and the Mobile Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Site
Marine interfaces
Bay and river channel dredging, cutterhead pipeline production, diffuser-controlled thin-layer placement, hopper transport, shoreline or marsh placement, Sand Island routing, ocean disposal, hydrographic control and placement-area monitoring
Commercial read
The public record establishes a large recurring workload and four possible destinations, not a single open package. Alabama's new rule adds a route-classification test: calling a method beneficial use in the federal programme does not by itself establish that it counts under the narrower state definition. Bid and award records must show the actual reach, material, destination, capacity and funding basis.
Next milestone
ADEM and ADCNR implementation rules, followed by the first post-1 October solicitation or work plan that allocates quantities and funding across qualifying beneficial-use and other placement routes

Material change register

What changed, when, and what it proves

Only source-bound events that alter phase, scope, counterparties, delivery, completion, commissioning, or acceptance are listed. A change can advance the record without proving the next gate.

Mobile District set out the current programme-scale route choice

USACE restated annual dredging of approximately 6 million cubic yards and described thin-layer, upland, Sand Island and ocean placement as distinct routes. The figures do not identify a current contract quantity or accepted annual output.

Read controlling source

A 100-acre Upper Bay wetland cell received RESTORE funding

The approved USD 24 million first cell creates a named destination for suitable dredged material and a foundation for a planned 1,200-acre restoration area. Its future receipt capacity and contract interfaces remain to be evidenced.

Read controlling source

Alabama enacted a coastal dredged-material threshold

Code Section 33-7-13 is scheduled to apply from 1 October 2026 to persons dredging more than 1 million cubic yards a year in coastal areas, subject to federal-funding, approved-site-capacity and emergency conditions.

Read controlling source

Delivery watch

Evidence needed next

ADEM and ADCNR implementation rules, followed by the first post-1 October solicitation or work plan that allocates quantities and funding across qualifying beneficial-use and other placement routes

Decision watchpoints

  • Annual solicitation quantities and maintained reaches within the Mobile Harbor federal navigation channel
  • Cutterhead, hopper or mechanical plant and the transport system required by each material route
  • Material suitability and permitted capacity at upland, thin-layer, Sand Island and ocean placement destinations
  • ADEM and Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources implementing rules for Code Section 33-7-13
  • Federal funding allocated to qualifying beneficial-use work after 1 October 2026
  • Thin-layer placement thickness, distance from the channel, site rotation and DQM position records
  • Measured quantities by destination rather than one blended beneficial-use percentage
  • Post-dredge hydrography, placement acceptance and environmental monitoring

Related records 1

Project availability status

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Record control

Evidence reviewed date is not a project-event date.

IMWO changes phase, participants, scope, completion, or acceptance wording only when a dated source establishes the change. The review date records when the evidence set was checked; it does not claim that physical work changed on that date.

Evidence reviewed 20 July 2026 Sources in this record 9

Source record

Mobile District's current O&M page controls federal responsibility and the four listed placement routes. The district's August 2024 thin-layer story controls the approximate 6-million-cubic-yard annual total, 4-million-cubic-yard Bay Channel share, 1,500-to-3,000-cubic-yard-per-hour cutterhead range, 6-to-12-inch placement layer, 2,500-foot setback and four-to-six-year site rotation; its environmental findings remain agency statements. The July 2026 DVIDS stories update the federal sediment-management position. Alabama Code Section 33-7-13 and enrolled HB181 control the state threshold, 70 percent requirement, definition, conditions, rulemaking and 1 October effective date. The June 2026 governor release identifies a funded 100-acre Upper Bay wetland cell as a specific beneficial-use destination, not capacity for every annual maintenance package.

Phase: delivery. Evidence reviewed: 20 July 2026.

Project sources 9