In season, the Cos Cob Marina abutting the Mianus River makes for a postcard of a thriving Fairfield County waterfront facility.
But it takes work. Left to its own devices, the 300-slip marina would fill with silt and become unusable.
“It has not been dredged for about 30 years and that”™s about 10 years longer than it should have gone,” said Jeff Freidag, superintendent for marine facilities and operations for the town of Greenwich.
A town-sponsored dredge operation ended Jan. 10, costing $1 million plus another $100,000 for a year of studies and permitting prior to the dredging. The contractor, Madison-based Coastline Consulting and Development L.L.C., sent its dredge north to Norwalk following a company project assessment. The town will check the company”™s work in the coming weeks to determine depth, Freidag said.
The dredge spoil amounted to fewer than 25,000 cubic yards and was to be dumped in the Long Island Sound off New Haven.
A dump in Stamford”™s waters was precluded by elevated contaminants in the dredge spoil, which Freidag said probably is the result of Interstate 95”™s overpass drains ”” up to a foot in diameter ”” directing road runoff into the marina.
The town”™s engineers, Roberge Associates Coastal Engineers L.L.C. in Stratford, oversaw the work.
Freidag said the goal is to achieve a depth of 5.5 feet below the mean water level. To fully achieve that depth, given the murky nature of dredging, the site will likely be overdredged ”” as much as another foot ”” in some parts.
Freidag has worked for the town four years and has a total 30 years on the waterfront in the public and private sectors. He said with a laugh: “It takes a lot of paperwork, a lot of studies to dig a hole in the water, at least it looks like that. But the marina is basically a marsh that”™s trying to become a marsh again.”
