Construction Services for New Haven Harbor Improvement Dredging in New Haven, CT

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District will be issuing an Invitation for Bids for Improvement Dredging of the New Haven Harbor Federal Navigation Project (FNP) located in New Haven, CT. This procurement is an Unrestricted Invitation for Bid (IFB). The NAICS code for the work is 237990, Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction, with a size standard of $37M. Construction is expected to take about nineteen months to complete. The estimated construction cost is between $50,000,000.00 and $100,000,000.00. Any responsible contractor meeting this standard may submit a bid to be considered by the New England District.

The New Haven Harbor Improvement Dredging project consists of mechanically dredging the navigation channel and turning basin from the current 35-foot depth and channel limits to the newly authorized 40-foot depth below mean lower low water (MLLW). The New Haven Harbor FNP extends from Long Island Sound to the confluence at the Quinnipiac River. In addition to deepening, the project expands channel limits: the entrance channel will widen to 600 feet, the bend through the breakwaters to 800 feet, and the main channel between the breakwaters and terminals to 500 feet. This improvement effort involves the removal of up to 3,500,000 CY of fine-grained silt and organic material, 850,000 cubic yards (CY) of medium-to-fine grained sand material, and 60,000 CY of rock. It is expected that some areas of rock may require blasting or other pre-treatment methods. Rock in the channel is to be removed down to a minimum elevation -42 Feet MLLW with a 2-foot allowable overdepth. All other areas are required to be dredged to -40 Feet MLLW with a 2-foot allowable overdepth.

Mechanically dredged material will be placed into scows for transport and disposal, which is split between four local disposal sites and one open ocean disposal site. Central Long Island Sound Disposal Site (CLDS), approximately 7 miles south of the FNP, is the primary material placement site for the project. Four additional placement sites within the harbor and generally within 1 nautical mile of the channel will receive up to 1,500,000 CY of material for beneficial use.  Access to these beneficial use sites may require transfer of scows in water depths as shallow as 10 Feet – 15 Feet MLLW (New Haven, CT mean tide range ~ 6ft). Dredging and disposal operations are anticipated to take roughly 9 to 10 months over two dredging seasons and will be performed during Season One between 1 October 2026 to 1 March 2027 and the Season Two period from 1 October 2027 to 1 March 2028 to meet environmental time of year (ToY) restrictions.

In order to accomplish all dredging requirements within the specified dredging windows it is expected that the Contractor will need to meet a minimum production rate of 300,000 CY per 30 consecutive calendar days. Environmental coordination and permitting has been completed by the U.S. Army of Engineers, New England District.

This is not an invitation for bids at this time. The solicitation requirements and contract documents including instructions for submission and the response date will be available on or about May 18, 2026.  Neither telephonic, mailed, nor faxed requests for hard copies of this solicitation will be accepted. The solicitation will only be available online; in order to download the solicitation, offerors must access the System of Award Management website (https://sam.gov/). All responsible sources may submit a bid which shall be considered by the New England District. Additional questions may be emailed to Kyle Hall, New England District Contract Specialist, at kyle.k.hall@usace.army.mil or by phone at (978) 318-8479.