The chief purpose of the project was to increase navigational safety and efficiency and eliminate or greatly reduce delays for larger vessels by deepening the harbor's five principal tributaries from -35 ft to -40 ft. This involved removal and disposal of environmentally sensitive contaminated sediments not approved for off-shore disposal. Instead, large underwater disposal cells were excavated on the bottom of the harbor. Contaminated material was placed in these cells, then covered with a 3- to 5-ft thick capping layer of clean sand excavated from a simultaneous maintenance project in the Cape Cod Canal. Material removed from the cells was taken to the Massachusetts Bay Disposal Site. This was the first project of its kind to employ deep, in-channel disposal cells on such a scale. The company's resourceful management of the project earned a special quality award from the Federal Government.

• Mechanical dredging of a total of ~81,000 yd³ of shoaled
  material and bay mud
• Stripping 540,000 yd³ from surface areas with land equipment
• Cutterhead dredging 1.1 million yd³ of stiff material (N = > 30)Hydraulic fill: In two lifts, first to 10 ft, then to 30 ft

• Maintenance dredging of ~210,000 yd³ of shoal material from Cut 3 through the Main Turning Basin to 42-foot depth.
• Construction dredging of ~194,000 yd³ of material from the berthing area adjacent to Fisherman Channel and Lummus Turning Basin to 42 feet.
• Construction dredging of ~5,000 yd³ of material from the Dodge Island Cut berthing area to 34-foot depth.
• Maintenance dredging of ~22,000 yd³ from Cuts 1 and 2.
• Maintenance dredging of ~43,000 yd³ from port berths adjacent to the main ship channel and Fisherman’s Channel.

New York District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Port Authority of New York/New Jersey

In 1980, the Corps of Engineers embarked on a phased program to deepen the entrance channels to the Port of New York/New Jersey from 35 to 40 ft, then to 45 ft, and eventually to 50 ft. In the execution of this work, Great Lakes has performed many key projects, becoming the dominant contractor in this sector of the market. The projects require the excavation of a full range of materials that includes soft and stiff clays, red shale, serpentine rock, glacial till, and granite.

Jacksonville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Jacksonville Port Authority

Jacksonville's main shipping channel, a 23-mile stretch of the St. Johns River, extends from the river's mouth to the Jacksonville Port Authority Talleyrand Marine Terminal near downtown Jacksonville. The Water Resources Development Act authorized the deepening of Jacksonville's harbor from its current depth of -38 feet to a depth of -40 feet (to -41 ft in areas of limestone rock bottom) from the mouth of the St. Johns River to Drummond Point. Dredging included deepening of the west channel of JAXPORT's Blount Island Marine Terminal, taking the channel from -30 to -38 ft.

This project involved dredging and disposing of 6.5 million yd³ of new work material. First, the existing Baldhead Shoal Channel was relocated some 13,000 ft southeast of its prior mouth. The new channel took the existing seabed, which ranged from -16 to -44 ft, to a grade of -44, with channel width varying from 720 ft to 500 ft. The approximate total contract area was 12,172,000 ft². The second segment involved deepening and widening the port's channel in the Cape Fear River from Keg Island to Lower Brunswick, removing 2.2 million yd³ of silty sand and sand via cutter suction dredge; drilling and blasting for removal of 340,000 yd³ of limestone, with material to be transported via barge to an ocean disposal site.

This project involved deepening Providence Harbor and the Providence River approach channel. Maintenance dredging with ocean disposal totaled 2,627,000 yd³. New work dredging entailed construction of deep confined aquatic disposal (CAD) cells to accept 1.4 million yd³ of contaminated materials. Ocean disposal totaled ~1.5 million yd³, and upland disposal 215,000 yd³. Capping medium to cover contaminated materials placed in CAD cells totaled 257,500 yd³. Additionally, the maintenance dredging was performed by clamshell dredges using environmental buckets, with barge overflow prohibited.

Navigational Improvement Project involved deepening the harbor to 38 ft. New work dredging totaled 2,877,500 yd³ this work was performed by clamshell dredges using environmental buckets, with offshore disposal at the San Francisco Ocean Disposal Site via the company's 7,200- yd³-capacity dump barges. Tight environmental requirements applied with respect to the towing and disposal of dredged materials. GLD&D made 470 disposal trips to the SF-DODS with no misplaced materials, far exceeding the performance record of any dredging contractor prior to or since this project.

The project entails mechanical dredging of 2.3 million cubic yards of mud, sand, glacial till and solid rock within New York Harbor and Kill Van Kull Channel with disposal at five sites, including four artificial reefs within the Atlantic Ocean.