Politics & Government
Photos: Lower Bay Dredging Complete
City officials celebrated the completion of the Lower Newport Bay dredging project Wednesday afternoon.
A dredging barge was the guest of honor Wednesday at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, where about 60 people gathered with city officials to celebrate the completion of the Lower Newport Bay dredging project.
Newport Beach Mayor Keith Curry said the $10 million project, of which $6.1 million was contributed by the city, removed contaminated sediments and solved dredging issues in upper and lower Newport Bay and the Rhine Channel.
"Today the state of the harbor has never been better," Doug West, a harbor commissioner, told the crowd.
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Curry said the project was the first significant dredging in over 70 years. He described navigating channels, coordinating tides and moving buoys as being similar to a "complicated chess game".
The Army Corps Of Engineers was an integral part in the Lower Bay dredging project. As part of Wednesday's ceremony, Councilwoman Leslie Daigle read a congratulatory letter from Colonel Tom Magnus.
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"This is a shining example of when people work together and never give up," Magnus said in his letter to Newport Beach. "Thank you for thinking outside the box."
