ESCANABA – Dredging was completed this week at the Escanaba Harbor. Harbormaster Larry Gravatt says 14-thousand cubic yards of sand was taken out of the mouth of the harbor. The $142-thousand project was paid for by the state’s emergency dredging fund.

Gravatt says it will provide better access to the harbor.

“Boats not familiar with our harbor, transient boats that come in faced a sand shoal out there that was fairly dangerous for them. We had to mark it over the past few years to make sure that nobody would run aground. Now we’ve taken care of that so that it will be much easier access into the harbor and no danger for boats with a deep draft,” he said.

The sand taken from the bottom of the harbor was used to rejuvenate the swimming beach at Arnson Island.

“Fourteen thousand cubic yards of sand is quite a bit of sand so we brought the beach up probably four to six feet higher than what it was before. It was really clean sand so it is going to be nice out there,” said Gravatt.

The state spent $21 million this year on emergency dredging projects throughout the state.

Menominee has drained it harbor and is currently digging the sand and sediment from the bottom. That project is expected to be completed in December.