T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Theaker Excavating and Miller Excavating and Demolition team up Wednesday to complete the St. Clairsville reservoir dredging project in a timely manner.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — After months of delays, dredging of the main St. Clairsville Reservoir has begun.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Ocean Service, “Dredging is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of lakes, rivers, harbors, and other water bodies. It is a routine necessity in waterways around the world because sedimentation, the natural process of sand and silt washing downstream, gradually fills channels and harbors.”

“We had a unique situation, a lot of delays for a lot of different reasons, and we were able to bring two competitive companies working together on this project to make it happen,” St. Clairsville Service Director Scott Harvey said.

Theaker Excavating and Miller Excavating and Demolition have teamed up to ensure the dredging project gets accomplished after months of unexpected setbacks.

In December, Miller Excavating and Demolition was awarded the bid to dredge the reservoir for the amount of $132,934.

St. Clairsville Water and Wastewater Supervisor Michael Reed said the idea to include Theaker Excavating came from Miller Excuvating to ensure that the project would be completed while a stretch of workable weather is occurring.

Harvey said the cost for the project has not changed for the city despite the inclusion of Theaker.

“Weather was the biggest delay, and then the logistics of getting everybody together. Miller was working on some other projects, but everybody’s timelines had to meet up,” Reed said. “We ended up getting that bad stretch of winter weather, and the roads weren’t safe enough to haul on and it was kind of just a logistical nightmare.”

He added that the dredging project’s completion will take roughly two weeks and that none of the original plans for the project changed other than the inclusion of Theaker Excavating.

Harvey previously said that St. Clairsville-area landowner Dave Callipari volunteered his property to be the dump site for the dirt and sediment that’s dredged from the reservoir. He said Callipari allowed the city to dump the debris on his property without any fee.

Reed added that the reason for the project is because the city knew it needed to be completed eventually and this past summer’s drought made the reservoir depleted to the point that the northeast area that was needing to be dredged was completely empty of water. He added that he believes the dredging project will allow the city to turn a negative situation into a positive, because after the project is completed it will allow the reservoir to hold more water.

“We knew that we needed dredging done. We had a study done a number of years ago, and we knew that there is 2 to 3 feet of sediment in this part of the reservoir that was restricting our capacity. So, with the unfortunate event of the drought, we took advantage of the water levels being low. We went ahead to push to get this dredging done so that we can open up some more capacity in our reservoir,” Reed said.