Page 19 - Port of Baltimore Magazine March/April 2011

MPA Dredging Operations
Continue to Make Port Safer
and Enhance Environment ELS W hen the northwest wind howled this winter, weary
residents started dreaming of a cruise to the islands.
But that wind could have threatened to catch the side of
large cruise ships as they turned, possibly blowing them
against the side of the South Locust Point channel. So,
with a bit of dredging, the Maryland Port Administration (MPA) modified
the channel, making the room needed to turn 1,000-foot ships in
the wind and preserve the dreams of island vacations.
“It’s over and done and the cruise ships are using that widened channel,”
said Frank Hamons, deputy director for Harbor Development. Hamons
added that the MPA was able to pump the dredged material directly into the
Masonville Cove containment site, a 141-acre tract on the south shore of the
Patapsco River’s Middle Branch. >>>
By Nancy Menefee Jackson
March/April 2011 ■ The Port of Baltimore [19]