Congressman Bill Huizenga has secured more than $1 million to dredge the St. Joseph inner harbor this year. He says the Army Corps of Engineers will also be providing an additional $560,000 for repair work to be done on the north pier of the harbor. St. Joseph Harbormaster Michael Moran tells us dredging the St. Joseph harbor is critical to the region’s construction industry.
“Our harbor is one of the key harbors in this part of the state,” Moran said. “We’re the main commercial harbor between Burns Harbor, Indiana and Holland, Michigan. We’re able to get commercial shipping in here, get material in here for construction projects, all over southwest Michigan and northern Indiana, and if the harbor’s not dredged and we can’t get these ships in, the material has to go to another port and that adds considerably to the transportation costs.”
Moran says he’s been in contact with Huizenga’s office while the congressman sought the dredging support. Berrien County Community Development Director Dan Fette says the dredging will help ensure that anticipated shipments of nearly 600,000 tons of material will be received in the St. Joe harbor this year. Huizenga says he knows projects like the major I-94 construction underway depend on the harbor.
