Gardens spending $96,450 to dredge deteriorating canal

PALM BEACH GARDENS — Mounds of mud and dirt were no match for a man operating a large piece of dredging equipment, digging 10 feet below the surface of the water in the Thompson River Canal last Tuesday.

The banks of the canal off Military Trail backing up to the res- idences in PGA Commons had slowly eroded. The canal was shallow, said Louis Johnson, stormwater operations manager. The city had to take action. It won’t stay that way for long. The contractor is dredging the canal and re-creating the banks the city’s workers use to access it for maintenance. All of the dredged material is being recycled, saving the city money in hauling fees, Johnson said.

Making the canal deeper gives it more capacity to store rainwater during a heavy storm. It also keeps algae and invasive weeds at bay, he said, adding, “When your canal is deep, it helps with the aquatic health, as well.”

The re s t o re d b a n k s o f t h e roughly one-mile canal are muddy but will be sodded, Johnson said. Heavy rain delayed the comple- tion of the work from June 5 to June 19, Johnson said.

As for disturbing the neighbors, the city’s noise ordinance prevents any work from starting before 8 a.m., and it usually ends around 5 p.m., Johnson said.

No work is performed on Sundays.

The entire dredging project