Channel Restrictions and Dredge Notifications

NOTICE: Maintenance Dredging of Lake Worth Inlet 

March 4, 2026

• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects its contractor to mobilize equipment, as early as Friday, March 6, 2026, pending unforeseeable weather/ mechanical delays.

• The contractor assigned to the project is Great Lakes Dredge and Dock.

• This year’s dredging of the Lake Worth Inlet is part of a larger $20M federal Coastal Storm Risk Management project that will benefit our entire community. 

• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is using material from the Lake Worth Inlet and two offshore areas for a beach restoration project in the Town of Palm Beach. 

•  Great Lakes Dredge and Dock will be using a hooper dredge “Padre Island” to remove material from the entrance channel and the settling basins.                 

•  The material will be vacuumed up into the hopper dredge, the dredge will sail down the coastline, and the material will be pumped onto the Mid-Town Segment for beach placement on Palm Beach.   

 •  Approximately 100,000 to 150,000 cubic yards of sand will be removed once the project is complete.                                                                                           

 • The dredging of the entrance channel and settling basins is expected to take about 30 days or less. After that, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock will move to one of two offshore borrow areas to collect the rest of the sand needed to complete the beach project by April 30, 2026.

• Noise levels will be slightly elevated in the area, as operations continue 24 hours a day.

• Mariners are urged to transit at their slowest safe speed to minimize wake and proceed with caution when navigating through the inlet.  

• The project will ensure the inlet remains accessible to Port tenants who are moving all sorts of cargo including cement, sugar, molasses, asphalt, granite aggregate, containerized cargo, break-bulk and other essential goods. 

•  Maintenance dredging typically occurs every year.

• The last maintenance dredging project was completed last year when a dredge removed approximately 217,000 cubic yards of sand that was used to replenish the northern part of the beach on Palm Beach. 

• For more information, contact the Port of Palm Beach Assistant Director of Operations Keith Leggett at 561-383-4190.