Oakland Harbor Deepening Project: Corps of Engineers, Port of Oakland mark -50 milestone

By Brandon Beach
District Public Affairs Office

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 6, 2009 - It took removing more than 12 million cubic yards of ocean sediment, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finally found bottom - minus 50 feet at Oakland Harbor.

With tomorrow’s ships being built bigger, the new depth means that the nation’s fifth busiest container port now offers more room.

It’s a major milestone for the San Francisco District and the Port of Oakland that was celebrated Sept. 18 in a project-completion ceremony at the Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. 

“It strengthens our position as a global gateway,” said Omar Benjamin, the port’s executive director. “Moving goods through our seaport translates to billions of dollars in economic activity.”

Last year alone, 1,928 vessels passed through the port carrying cargo valued at $33 billion, according to the port’s website.

Naturally, more dollars create more jobs. “Nearly 450,000 jobs in California are related in some way to the amount of cargo that comes into Oakland,” said U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who represents the East Bay’s Ninth District, in her remarks. “It [Port of Oakland] has become one of the most important economic engines in the Bay Area.”

Among the speakers at the one-and-a-half hour ceremony was Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works), Col.(P) Rock Donahue, commander of the South Pacific Division, and Viktor Uno, president of the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners. 

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By Brandon Beach
District Public Affairs Office

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 6, 2009 - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — San Francisco District recently issued a permit to the Department of the Air Force, as plans are set to upgrade a major runway at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif.

The 18-month project calls for demolishing the existing 10,995-foot long, 300-foot wide runway, which is one of two runways at Travis. In its place will be a slimmer 10,995-foot long, 150-foot wide runway equipped with new approach lights, paved shoulders and an underdrain system. That’s the easy part.

Not so easy are the more than eight acres of vernal pool wetland habitat directly on or near the project site. As Air Force planners drew up initial project specs, permanent impacts to these habitats, considered a vital ecosystem to various federally-threatened and endangered species like the California tiger salamander, seemed unavoidable.

Under the Corps’ no-net loss to wetlands policy, any impacts would require restoring the loss by mitigation, an oftentimes costly endeavor.

“Mitigation for just one-tenth of an acre can be in the tens of thousands [of dollars],” said Bryan Matsumoto, a project manager in the San Francisco District’s Regulatory Division.

The question soon became: “Is there a way to minimize these impacts?” said David Musselwhite, chief of the 60th Civil Engineer Squadron Asset Management Flight on Travis. “They [contractor] had this big wide zone, and we wanted to try to narrow it.”