By Jim Bloch
Rivers and canals can make communities more inviting, adding opportunities for recreation, economic development – and serenity.
They can also be expensive.
The city of Port Huron will pay roughly $290,000 per year, 2026-2028, to conduct maintenance dredging and dock repairs at the city’s downtown marinas.
At its regular meeting Feb. 9, the city council voted unanimously to award a three-year contract to M.L. Chartier Excavating, of Fair Haven, for the work.
Chartier submitted the low bid out of a field of five firms.
“These budget numbers are based off estimated quantities,” said City Manager James Freed, as heard on the recording of the meeting posted on YouTube. “What we’ll do is go out and do sonar testing to see if and how much we have to dredge. We haven’t had to dredge the last couple of years, which means we’ll probably have to dredge this year. There were some boat wells that were filling up last year.”
“So, this is for dredging and basically some maintenance for the docks?” said council member Conrad Haremza. “I know a little while back we had a proposal into the state for bigger long-term planning for the (marinas).”
“We actually working with our grant writer right now putting together a grant application for that,” said Freed. “This is more for annual maintenance. The freeze and thaw cycle every year torques the docks, it messes up the docks, and they have to go in and re-set a couple of them.”
The city asked the companies to submit bids for each of the three years of the contract. Chartier submitted the same bid of $289,401 for each of the three years. The second lowest bidder, Dean Marine & Excavating, of Mount Clemens quoted $300,451 for 2026, $306,303 for 2027 and $315,652 for 2028. Woloch Whelan LLC, of St. Clair, quoted $383,500 for each of the three years. Huron Pointe Excavating, of Mount Clemens, bid $361,140 for each of the three years. E. C. Korneffel Co., of Trenton, was high at $428,000 for 2026, $403,000 for 2027 and $453,000 for 2028.
“This project is a three-year contract for dredging the material from the Downtown mooring slips, and maintenance repairs and raising/lowering of the docks as needed,” said Freed in his memo to council about the work.
The city owns four marinas downtown: The Quay Street Docks, the James C. Acheson Marina, the Fort Street Docks and the Southside Docks. There is a total of 131 slips plus parallel parking along the seawall at Quay Street.
“The dredging is a permitted activity through a joint permit issued by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the United States Army Corps of Engineers,” Freed said. “In 2020, in an attempt to attract more bidders, the dredging and dock maintenance activities were combined, and the contract was expanded to cover a three-year period. The contractor has the potential to dredge up to 2,000 cubic yards of material each year based on results of a bathymetric survey performed by the City’s consultant. Under the permit, dredging must occur after spring ice breakup and be completed by April 14th of each year.”
High lake levels over past few years have made dredging unnecessary.
“With fluctuations in the water levels and accumulation of sediment over time, there is potential that dredging will be necessary within this contract window,” Freed said.
The city advertised the bid letting on the Michigan Intergovernmental Trade Network and the city’s website.
The final vote was 5-0. Council member Robert Mozurak and Mayor Pro Tem Sherry Archibald were absent.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
