St Mary’s River / USACE
Hen & Q Islands, Michigan
Performing a geotechnical investigation to determine suitability for dredge material placement containment berms.
The St. Mary’s River is vital to commercial navigation on the Great Lakes. The federal investment in navigation and hydropower infrastructure and the continued commitment to ongoing operation and maintenance efforts is an acknowledgment of the importance of the river system.
Dredging operations on the St. Mary’s River provide safe and efficient commercial navigation. Historically, dredge material placement has been placed upland at the Rock Cut confined disposal facility (CDF). However, the Rock Cut CDF has reached its capacity.
Hen and Q Islands were being considered for this purpose.
CT performed a geotechnical investigation of the islands by drilling, sampling, and analyzing soil borings.
The scope included drilling eight total borings, four on the perimeter of each island. We tested the soil samples for various geotechnical engineering properties.
This project required mobilizing drilling equipment to these remote islands by barge. The ground surface conditions were also poorly defined, so additional construction equipment, including bulldozers and excavators, was required to offload equipment and provide access to the locations.