TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager to execute a contract with Manson Construction and Engineering to dredge the Los Angeles River navigation channel to Catalina Landing Basin in an amount not to exceed $174,000 for a term of thirty days. (District 2)
DISCUSSION
Catalina Landing is a complex of office buildings developed on Tidelands owned by the
City of Long Beach, but subject to the California Public Trust Doctrine. This complex
contains facilities specifically designed to support the operations of a terminal for
moderate-sized ships for passenger transportation service. Approximately 70 percent
of the passenger traffic to Catalina Island travels through this terminal on an annual
basis.
The extraordinary winter rains experienced this past year caused a substantial increase
in silt deposits that were washed down the Los Angeles River blocking the channel that
leads to the Catalina Landing Basin. In April 2005, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(ACOE), the federal agency established by Congress with responsibility for maintaining
public navigation channels, responded to the situation and conducted an interim-
dredging project to clear the channel enough to allow operations from the Catalina
Landing Basin. Followed by unusually late rain in May, additional silt has been
deposited into the channel impacting access to the Catalina Landing Basin for
passenger services to and from Catalina Island, commercial operations, and the
Aquarium of Pacific’s delivery of clean seawater for its tanks. To address this latest
obstruction, ACOE has designed a second dredging operation to open the navigation
channel for the summer. This will be a one-day dredging scheduled for June 21, 2005.
Testing has shown that the material to be dredged from the channel is slightly
contaminated. The silt will be dredged from the channel, contaminants separated, and
the remaining clean sand will be utilized in our beach building efforts. The dredging,
separation and beach deposit pr...
Click here for full text