Cooperative Dredging: The Management of Port and Harbor Dredging Projects in Massachusetts

"Master Plans" for ports commonly focus on development, land use, and environmental issues but generally fail to include recommendations to coordinate plan implementation. As a result, various port projects involving construction and dredging are initiated independently, and this results in few economic or environmental benefits to the proponent or the general public. If environmental testing, permitting, and dredging for the projects were combined, substantial savings in time and money could be realized by port users and environmental impacts to public resources could be reduced. This paper suggests a framework for the coordination of port and harbor dredging projects and presents case studies from Gloucester Harbor and the Port of Boston, Massachusetts, where this framework has successfully been implemented.