The West Calcasieu Port has completed the maintenance dredging project for its west barge
basin.
State and federal monies covered most of the costs associated with this $2.31 million project.
Grants worth $50,000 were received from the city of Sulphur and Calcasieu Parish.
Mike Hooks Inc. of Westlake performed the dredging operations.
Predredging work — levy construction at the spoils reception area and the installation of
concrete revetment along the west barge basin shoreline — began in May and was completed
in July.
Once those steps were completed, the Mike Hooks team positioned its dredging barge at the
port and began moving about 180,000 cubic yards of spoil material to a 40-acre spoils receiving
site just to the northwest on port property. That site that has been approved by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers to receive the spoils.
Returning the basin to full operation is critical to the port’s barge services along the Gulf
Intracoastal Waterway and plays a vital role to the Southwest Louisiana maritime industry
hurricane response planning.
Because of the port’s location on the waterway — two miles west of the Calcasieu River — the
port’s west barge basin serves as a ‘‘safe haven’’ for shallow-water marine vessels and barges
in the event the area is struck by a hurricane.
The port’s largest tenant, Devall Towing, operates one of the most expansive barge fleeting
operations along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and that demand for quality barge docking
space is essential if the company is to meet growing demand for shallow-water maritime
transportation in Southwest Louisiana.
The port, 12 miles south of Interstate 10 and just west of La. 27, offers 2,500 feet of waterfront
property on the Intracoastal Waterway. Current tenant activity includes barge operations,
maritime fueling service, diesel repair, heavy-equipment contracting and maritime supply
operations.
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