A Charleston company that makes its living digging out Southeastern harbors has had a busy summer of federal contract wins.

Marinex Construction Inc. has won three Army Corps of Engineers contracts since mid-July with a combined face value of about $89.3 million, according to a CHS Business Report tally of the Pentagon’s daily contract announcements. The jobs will keep its crews working in two Georgia ports and on a Florida beach into 2027.

The company, based on Pittsburgh Avenue in Charleston, specializes in channel and fill dredging and river and harbor improvements, according to its website.

Three jobs in three months

The largest award came Aug. 12. The Corps’ Savannah District hired Marinex for maintenance dredging of an inner harbor in Savannah, Georgia, removing up to 5.6 million cubic yards of material. The contract obligated $33,052,500 at award and has a total face value of $37,822,500, the Pentagon said. Work is to be finished by Nov. 30, 2027.

Marinex was the only bidder.

On Sept. 11, the Corps’ Jacksonville District awarded Marinex a contract to renourish about 5.5 miles of beach and dune on Anna Maria Island in Manatee County, Florida. That award obligated $28.4 million, with a total face value of $32,373,000, and drew five bids. Completion is set for May 28, 2027.

The Corps had estimated the Anna Maria job at $25 million to $35 million. Its notice described a base section of about 4.1 miles plus a 1.4-mile option, with sand dredged from offshore borrow areas and dune plants added once each segment is built.

The first of the three, announced July 15, is a $19,138,783 contract from the Savannah District for the Brunswick Harbor modification project in Georgia. It covers expanding the Cedar Hammock Range bend widener and placing dredged material at Jekyll Island. Three companies bid, and the work is due by July 15, 2027, according to the announcement.

The Corps’ earlier notice for that project described widening the bend by up to 321 feet over about 2,700 feet and digging it to 38 feet, including 2 feet of allowable overdepth. That notice also described widening the turning basin at Colonel’s Island Terminal.

Federal money, Georgia ports

The Brunswick and Savannah jobs are paid for with fiscal 2026 civil construction funds. The Anna Maria work uses fiscal 2025 civil construction money, the Pentagon said.

Marinex has worked in Savannah before. The company won an $18.4 million contract in 2014 to dredge maintenance material from the Savannah and Brunswick inner harbors and picked up $8.3 million more for Savannah Inner Harbor work in 2017, according to news items posted on its website.

A 2019 Army Corps article described the pace of that work. Maintenance dredging in Savannah runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with few exceptions, a Marinex site safety and health officer aboard the dredge Hampton Roads told the Corps.

Who Marinex is

F. Hammond Johnson founded Marinex in 1991, according to the company. Its website says he started in the dredging industry in 1969 and that the company has worked on channels and shorelines from Norfolk, Virginia, to Tampa, Florida.

The website lists two cutter suction dredges. The Hampton Roads is a 19-inch dredge, 146 feet long, with 5,800 installed horsepower. The larger Savannah is a 24-inch dredge, 250 feet long, with 9,500 installed horsepower. The site says the company has a team of more than 100 people, many with 30 years or more in the industry.

Marinex has also worked closer to home. The Corps’ Charleston District hired it for a $10 million job to fill areas of Folly Beach eroded by hurricanes Matthew and Irma, according to a January 2018 news item on the company’s website, and a January 2017 item says its crews had begun renourishing the beach at Edisto.

The home harbor went elsewhere

This year’s contract for maintenance dredging in Charleston’s lower harbor went to another contractor. On July 28, the Pentagon announced a $28,175,500 contract to The Dutra Group of San Rafael, California, for Charleston Lower Harbor maintenance dredging.

All three of Marinex’s new jobs are out of state. Of the roughly $89.3 million in face value on those contracts, the Corps obligated about $80.6 million at award, by the same tally. All three are scheduled to wrap up by the end of November 2027.