Pre-solicitation - FY25 Savannah Inner Harbor Dredging Project

This is a PRE-SOLICATATION NOTICE for the FY25 Savannah Inner Harbor Maintenance Dredging. This acquisition will be offered as an unrestricted competitive solicitation and will result in a Firm Fixed Price Contract Award. The magnitude of this requirement per DFARS 236.204(ii) is between $25,000,000.00 and $100,000,000. Project Location: The work is located in the deep draft Savannah Harbor navigation project in Georgia. The Savannah Habor project is located on the border of Georgia (GA) and South Carolina (SC) in Chatham and Jasper Counties.

The Savannah Inner Harbor Dredging Contract provides construction services, including furnishing personnel, transportation, mobilization and demobilization, equipment and materials required in connection with maintenance dredging.  This contract is traditionally performed with a hydraulic cutterhead dredge, and the duration is expected to be one year from Notice to Proceed.  Up to four million cubic yards of maintenance material is expected to be removed from the inner harbor.

The work is located in the deep draft Savannah Harbor navigation project in Georgia in the vicinity of Chatham County, Georgia (GA) and Jasper County, South Carolina (SC).  The Savannah Inner Harbor channel is 47 ft. deep MLLW and 500 ft. wide to the upper end of Kings Island Turning Basin: 36 ft. deep MLLW and 400 ft. wide to the upper end of Argyle Island Turning Basin; and 30 ft. deep MLLW and 200 ft. wide to the upper limit of the project.  

Savannah Harbor’s Kings Island Turning Basin (KITB) is the primary turning basin for large civilian and military ships, lying adjacent to the Georgia Ports Authority docks.  KITB requires dredging twice a year to allow the loaded ships to freely turn when using the port.  Up to 1.5 million cubic yards of maintenance material is removed from the KITB annually.

Other contractor(s) may be working for the Savannah District on the Savannah Harbor, to include confined upland dredged material containment areas and designated staging areas.  If such work occurs, the contractors shall coordinate activities under the direction of the Contracting Officer.

A majority of the material dredged from the Savannah Inner Harbor must be placed in upland confined disposal areas adjacent to the Savannah River. Savannah confined upland disposal areas DMCAs 12A, 13A, 13B and Jones Oysterbed Island are owned by local sponsor Georgia Department of Transportation.  Disposal areas DMCAs 14A and 14B are owned by the Joint Project Office of the Georgia and South Carolina Port Authorities.  Portions of DMCAs 2A and Jones/Oysterbed are owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  DMCA 1N is owned entirely by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  The Federal Government holds existing easements on all confined upland disposal areas in the Savannah Harbor except DMCA 1N which has a Memorandum of Understanding.

Environmental windows limit the timing of dredging in the Savannah Inner Harbor.  The environmental windows in Savannah include a Striped Bass spawning window (2 weeks between approximate dates 1 April through 15 May timeframe) which limits the amount and timing of dredging above station 63+360 (River Mile 12), and a dissolved oxygen window (approximately July 1 through September 30).  To protect sturgeon aggregation areas in the upper river, no dredging is allowed above STA 105+500 1 May through 31 October. 

Certain reaches of O&M sediments may contain cadmium (Cd) in levels significant enough to harm foraging avian species in the DMCAs.  Therefore, O&M sediments in those reaches will be tested by the Government prior to dredging.  If Cd is found in those sediments equal to or greater than 14 mg/kg, then options will be exercised that include disposal of the sediments in specific DMCAs under special handling conditions.

Obstructions are objects or materials in the required side slope cross sections or in the existing ground surface which are unknown at the time of encounter by the dredge or identified by pre and post hydrographic surveys, and monthly condition surveys. Obstructions are objects which cannot be removed by a hydraulic pipeline dredge.  The Contractor may encounter obstructions during dredging operations and must remove the objects or materials to provide the required section as shown on the cross-section plates.  If the Contractor is performing maintenance dredging with a pipeline dredge, the dredge must act as a probe for obstructions.  The object removed will be the property of the Contractor unless it has been determined to be culturally significant. 

The base contract will include mobilization/demobilization, maintenance dredging, moves, dive team diving, and equipment rental for obstruction removal.  Contract options include Cd dredging with placement to the backside of DMCA 14B and maintenance dredging as cap material placed on top of the Cd dredged material.