Beginning in November 2022, the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council of Rhode Island (CRMC) and The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island performed maintenance dredging of the upper Providence River, funded as part of the Clean Water and Green Economy Bonds approved by Rhode Island voters in 2018 and 2021.

Dredging extended from the Crawford Street Bridge to the Point Street Bridge. The operation ran continuously, 7 days a week, and was completed in 2023. The stretch of river north of the Crawford Street Bridge, including the basin at Waterplace Park, was dredged in the winter of 2019-20.

The project removed road sand and other sediments that washed into the river over a period of 25 years, along with a significant amount of plastic trash that was layered into the river bottom. A support excavator, positioned on a second barge, worked in tandem with the dredge barge, removing larger debris.

Dredged material was pumped through the hurricane barrier to a temporary storage area at the Quay on the East Providence waterfront. There it was dewatered in large geotextile tubes and eventually mixed and stabilized with Portland formula cement to construct a service facility for offshore wind development.

The CRMC and TNC co-managed the work through a cooperative agreement. TNC awarded the dredging contract to Michels Marine, a division of Michels Construction, Inc. of Brownsville, Wisconsin, through a competitive bidding process. Total project cost was approximately $4.5 million.

Waterplace Park Phase 2 Dredging Update 1/10/23 (PDF)