Stimulus-Funded Dredging Job To Deepen Port of Mobile, Ala.

Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co., Oak Brook, Ill., is the low bidder for a $24-million stimulus-funded dredging contract to deepen the port of Mobile, Ala., by 45 ft. The move will allow large container ships at the nation’s tenth busiest port to avoid a costly eight-mile trip to turn around and ease channel congestion. The “turning basin” will be developed near the site of a new $300-million container terminal, the nation’s largest coal terminal, and a steel terminal, set to be completed in October by ThyssenKrupp. Other bidders for the contract, awarded by the Army Corps of Engineers, included Norfolk Dredging, Chesapeake, Va., at $25.6 million and Weeks Marine Inc., Cranford, N.J., at $27.5 million.