Blue Hill Harbor Navigation Improvement Study

Aerial view of Blue Hill Harbor

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), in partnership with the Town of Blue Hill, Maine initiated this feasibility study of establishing a Federal Navigation Project (FNP) in Blue Hill Harbor, Blue Hill, Maine. The study was conducted to determine if Federal participation in channel and related navigation improvements is warranted.

The proposed project will make navigation access improvements to the Town Wharf Landing at Blue Hill Harbor in Blue Hill, Maine. A feasibility study developed and analyzed several alternatives for navigation channel improvements and the benefits that each alternative provides. The Recommended Plan, as shown below, would establish a channel -6 feet deep at mean lower low water by 80 feet wide, extending about 5,400 feet from deep water off Parker Point up-harbor to the Blue Hill town landing with a one-half-acre turning basin at its head. Only the upper 2,600 feet of the channel would require dredging. The project would involve the dredging of about 71,500 cubic yards of mixed silty and sandy material from the channel and turning basin. Testing has determined that most of this material is suitable for open-water placement at the previously used Eastern Passage Disposal Site. Dredged material from the upper channel reaches includes about 10,600 cubic yards from the upper two feet of material that has been determined unsuitable for unconfined open water placement. To dispose of the unsuitable portion of the dredged material a confined aquatic disposal cell (CAD), about 1.8 acres in size, would be constructed in the harbor north of the channel. Forming the CAD cell would require dredging an estimated 19,500 cubic yards of material. Of the remaining 60,900 CY of the suitable dredged material from the lower channel reaches, about 8,800 CY, would be used to cap the CAD cell after it is filled. All remaining suitable material, including 52,100 CY from the channel and the 19,500 CY dredged to create the CAD cell (a total of 71,600 CY) would be placed at the previously used Eastern Passage Disposal Site.

This image is the recommended plan from the Feasibility study. 

Recommended plan from the Feasibility Study.

For more information, please contact the Project Manager, by e-mail or by calling (978) 405-4956.

Updated: March 22, 2023