SACO —  Dredging of the upper Saco River has been completed and US Army Corps of Engineers officials are preparing to come back next year to dredge the lower river.

Congress authorized a federal navigation project to clear out the navigation channel in the Saco River from downtown Saco to the mouth of the river. 

The federal fiscal year 2018 budget included $4.2 million to dredge the Saco River, said Army Corps spokesman Tim Dugan in an email on Thursday. 

The US Army Corps of Engineers recently culminated about a month long dredging of the upper river using government dredge MURDEN.

The dredging of the upper river has been completed, and material from the upper river was placed in a deep in-river scour site about a mile downstream of the dredging area, said Dugan. 

“Preparation of plans and specifications to dredge the lower river in the fall of 2018 are currently underway,” said Dugan. He said environmental permitting for the lower river dredging has been completed. The material from the lower river will be hydraulically pumped onto the beach in Camp Ellis, said Dugan. 

Final data on the amount of material dredged from the upper river isn’t yet available, said Dugan.

Estimates made prior to the start of the project calculated the completed project would involve dredging 150,000 cubic yards of sand — 100,000 cubic yards in the lower river area and 50,000 cubic yards in the upper river area from an area of roughly 77 acres, according to a written statement in 2016 from Project Manager Craig Martin, of the Corps’ New England District, Programs/Project Management Division.

Prior to the current project, the last time the upper river was dredged was 1992. The lower river has not been dredged since 1993. 

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.