Boat Slip and Channel Dredging

A boat slip you cannot float a boat in is a liability, not an amenity. Gulf Coast sedimentation is relentless, and a slip or channel that had five feet of water when the dock was built can be at two feet a decade later. Gulf Coast Dock Masters dredges boat slips, approach channels, marina basins and canal runs across coastal Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and southeast Louisiana, and restores the depth you are supposed to have.

Every job starts with a survey. We sound the slip or channel, map the existing bottom against the depth you need for your vessel at low tide, and work out how much material has to come out and where it is going. That survey is also what the permit application is built on.

What we dredge

• Private boat slips and dock pockets that have silted in below usable draft.
• Approach and access channels from the slip out to navigable water, including the shoaled sections that only show up at low tide.
• Canal and bayou runs serving multiple properties, including shared and HOA maintained waterways.
• Marina basins and commercial berths, including maintenance dredging on a recurring schedule.
• Post storm shoaling, where surge has pushed sand and debris into a slip or across a channel mouth.
• Pre construction dredging ahead of a new dock, pier, boat lift or boathouse so the finished structure sits in water that works.

Survey, permitting and spoil disposal

Dredging is permitted work, every time. The US Army Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction over navigable waters, each state runs its own environmental and coastal review, and the local building or marine department usually has a say as well. The application needs the bathymetric survey, the dredge footprint and depth, the volume of material and a disposal plan for the spoil. Seagrass, oyster habitat and wetland in the footprint change the review and sometimes the design. We prepare and submit all of it, work with the reviewing agencies and schedule the work around the approvals and the seasonal windows that apply in some areas.

Spoil disposal is handled as part of the job. Depending on the material and the location that can mean an approved upland site, beneficial use placement or offshore disposal at a permitted location. We sort that out before the dredge arrives, not after.

Why choose Gulf Coast Dock Masters

• Licensed and insured in Alabama, Louisiana and Florida.
• Our own marine fleet. Barges, push boats and cranes are ours, so mobilization to a tight residential canal is something we plan rather than something we subcontract.
• Survey first, price second. You get a real volume and a real number, not a guess that grows once the work starts.
• Permitting handled for you, including the spoil disposal plan that holds up most dredging applications.
• One contractor for the whole job. If the slip needs dredging and the dock needs rebuilding, that is one schedule and one crew rather than two.
• Free on site assessment with a written scope and price before any work begins.

Service areas

Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Fort Morgan, Dauphin Island, Perdido Key, Perdido Beach, Innerarity Point, Pensacola, Fairhope, Daphne, Mobile, New Orleans and the surrounding communities and parishes.

Get a free estimate on your dredging project

Call the Alabama and Florida office at (251) 215-1712 or the Louisiana office at (504) 329-2003, or send the form on this page and we will call you back to schedule the survey.