SALISBURY — Dredging in the Merrimack River was curtailed over the weekend, first by mechanical difficulties and then by high surf churned up by faraway Hurricane Igor.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers established new ratios for distributing dredged sand to rebuild sections of eroded beach here and on Plum Island, because there's considerably less sand available than expected.
The Army Corps needed to refigure sand totals after its latest estimate indicated the dredging will yield 147,000 cubic yards of sand, short of the 160,000 that had previously been expected to come out of the Merrimack River channel.
The new figures call for 36,000 yards going to Salisbury and the remaining 111,000 going to a Newbury section of Plum Island beach.
The 320-foot cutter suction dredge Illinois was maneuvered into position Friday afternoon and began operating Saturday around noon, according to Army Corps spokesman Tim Dugan. The dredge is opening up the shallow, sand-choked channel of the river in order to allow safer navigation. The Merrimack's mouth is notoriously known as one of the most dangerous on the East Coast, and the shallow conditions have caused larger boats to ground out as they attempt to get through.
Dredging continued until about 10 p.m., when a part in the machinery broke and needed to be replaced.
Dugan said work restarted around noon on Sunday and continued until about midnight.
Rough seas forced the contractor, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. of Oak Brook, Ill., to move the Illinois farther into the harbor yesterday morning.
Dugan said it was uncertain when dredging could resume.
The project to dredge the channel and deposit the sand directly on the two sections of beach has been in the works for almost two years.
In addition to clearing a channel that hasn't been dredged in 11 years, the project is also intended to rebuild sections of shoreline that have been seriously eroded, especially since the notorious Patriots Day storm in April 2007.
The federal government is footing the bulk of the costs for the $5.5 million project in partnership with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which is paying most of the nonfederal matching costs. The towns of Newbury and Salisbury are also contributing funds to the project.
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