Chesapeake Bay Bridge News

The United States' largest dredging contractor Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation on Wednesday announced the receipt of $107 million in new contract awards along the U.S. East Coast.The awarded dredging work includes: Norfolk Harbor Navigation Improvements Project (Capital, Virginia, $56.8 million), Charleston Lower Harbor Maintenance Dredging Project (Maintenance, South Carolina, $15.4 million), Tampa Harbor Maintenance Dredging 45-Foot Project (Maintenance, Florida, $13 million)…

The U.S. Coast Guard is scheduled to discontinue 166 navigational aids within the Virginia Inside Passage (VIP) due to shoaling and other navigational safety concerns throughout the area. Fixed aids to navigation will be removed as Coast Guard resources permit over the next several years and will be listed under an Advance Notice in future Local Notice to Mariners. The decision follows a 2013 proposal, which identified 241 navigational aids for removal. The Army Corps of Engineers completed water surveys in 2015…

The U.S. Coast Guard is working with local response agencies and the Virginia and Maryland Pilots Tuesday after receiving a report of a collision between two ships in the Thimble Shoal Channel and are responding to several subsequent reports of ships dragging anchor in the lower Chesapeake Bay. The 79-foot rig vessel, Petite, and the 1065-foot container ship, MSC Charleston, reportedly collided due to weather in the main ship channel at approximately 7:30 p.m. There was no initial report of damage, pollution or injuries to either vessel, and both are safely anchored pending a Coast Guard investigation. Winds gusting to 70 mph at Cape Henry caused 12 ships anchored in the vicinity of Lynnhaven to drag anchor and caused the 751-foot bulk carrier…

The Coast Guard responded to a cargo ship that ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay. The Mediterranean Shipping Company vessel Japan, a 796-ft. Panamanian flagged cargo ship, ran aground near Sandy Point Light approximately one mile north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. A Coast Guard inspection team and boarding officers from Coast Guard Sector Baltimore were deployed to the grounded vessel. Additionally, a 25-foot Coast Guard response boat crew from Station Annapolis, Md., is on scene to enforce a safety zone around the vessel. There is no report of injuries or pollution. Two tugs hired by the shipping company are in route to the vessel to help free it. The Japan was in route to Port Elizabeth, NJ. This incident is currently under investigation.

The master of a Panama-flagged freighter was convicted Wednesday of operating a commercial vessel while under the influence of alcohol and was fined $3,000 and ordered not to operate a vessel in U.S. waters for one year. Immigration officials are also processing Hungarian Janos Gyori, 52, for deportation. Gyori was arrested Jan. 11 after the Captain of the Port of Hampton Roads denied entry of the 214-foot General Lee. The vessel had been targeted for both security and safety boardings using the Coast Guard's standard risk assessment procedures. The freighter failed to stop 12 miles offshore for a security check, and Gyori did not respond to the Coast Guard over radio. After the team detected alcohol on his breath, they conducted a field sobriety test, which he failed.

Maryland’s far Eastern Shore may soon be a quick trip from Baltimore, thanks to a ferry being developed by Maritime Applied Physics Corporation and A. James Clark School of Engineering researchers through the Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program. The plane-like boat, which could be in service year-round as early as summer 2007, will fly passengers 18 miles over the water from Rock Hall to Baltimore or back for potential shopping trips, coastal touring, evening dinners, Orioles games, cultural events, and commuting to work. “Since the steamship days the Eastern Shore has held a certain allure for Baltimoreans,” said P.A.M. Schaller, Director of Economic Development for Kent County. “Rock Hall has the flavor of a waterman’s town. Nearby Chestertown has loads of 18th century architecture.

The Coast Guard Cutter Northland is scheduled to return to its homeport today at 10 a.m. following a 63-day homeland security patrol for Operation Liberty Shield off the Virginia coast. Northland led a maritime security squadron (MSS) guarding the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. At times, Northland coordinated the patrol efforts of two U.S. Navy Coastal Patrol Boats and many fixed winged and rotary aircraft. Northland coordinated this multi-asset patrol effort to increase maritime domain awareness and monitor shipping traffic for threats to America and the ports and waterways from Hampton Roads, Va., to Baltimore. When the homeland security advisory system was changed to level orange…