Harbor dredging planned

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

The state wants to dredge a portion of Honolulu Harbor at Pier 51A to allow large container ships and fueling vessels that use the commercial pier to safely maneuver and berth.

The dredging will remove about 1,800 cubic yards of silt, sand and gravel that has been slowly filling the area and return it to a depth of 40 feet, conforming with the rest of the harbor, according to the assessment.

The area near the pier now is between 35 and 40 feet deep, said Scott Sullivan, vice president of Sea Engineering, the state's project consultant.

"The whole area is man-made dating back to World War II," Sullivan said. "We are trying to accommodate the types of vessels using that pier."

The pier is used by CSX Lines for container cargo vessels and to unload fuel tankers.

Large container and fuel tanker vessels must at times overhang the end of the pier to offload cargo, and the shallow depth can prevent them from berthing fully loaded, according to the assessment. The project area to be dredged is a 100- by 250-foot rectangle adjacent to the west end of the pier.

"The fuel tanker particularly has to overhang the pier quite a bit because of where the piping is located on the pier they connect to," Sullivan said. "We are only deepening the area where the ships will overhang. It's the minimum we can do to accommodate ships being able to come into the berth and slide forward without any problem."

The work is expected to begin early next year and will take about two weeks to complete. Sullivan said the work will not interfere with loading or unloading of ships.

"The project specifications require that the pier remain open during dredging," he said. "The contractor will have to work around the scheduled ship arrivals."

The dredged materials will be taken to Kalaeloa Harbor to dry and then to a landfill.

Commercial use of Honolulu Harbor began around 1800, and the harbor has been enlarged and deepened many times. Sand Island, where Pier 51 sits, was created between 1940 and 1947 from material removed from Keehi Lagoon.

Maintenance dredging of the harbor was most recently done in 1990 and 1999, when 135,000 and 191,000 cubic yards of material, respectively, were removed.

Sullivan said the 40-foot depth will be enough for the size of ships currently using Honolulu Harbor but with ships getting larger, the state will some day have to think about dredging the entire harbor.

"Twenty years ago, in the early '80s, it was dredged to 40 feet," Sullivan said. "It may be time to gear up and deepen it again."

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.

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