Who Will Finish Dredging at Lake Elkhorn?

Columbia Association officials are trying to hire a new company to wrap up the dredging project at Lake Elkhorn – a project that has gone on longer than expected and has lingered after the original contractor stopped working on it.

CA announced Tuesday that it will be issuing a request for proposals within the next two weeks, seeking to find a new contractor to finish up the leftover work.

In August 2006, the association began looking into its options for removing sediment from Lake Elkhorn in Owen Brown and Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia Town Center, according to documents on the Columbia Association website. Work was initially expected to begin in June 2008.

That date was pushed back a few times. Crews from Mobile Dredging and Pumping Co. ultimately began setting up a staging area from which to work at Lake Elkhorn in October 2009, according to the Columbia Association website. Dredging began at the lake in March 2010.

Mobile Dredging and Pumping had until March 2011 to complete work. It didn’t, according to CA, and the company removed its equipment from the lake. The company had sued CA for $1 million in November, accusing the association of breach of contract and not paying for work, according to The Baltimore Sun and online court records.

“There is an ongoing dispute between CA and the contractor as to the quantities of sediment removed from Lake Elkhorn and the contractor’s failure to complete the project according to the contract schedule,” CA officials said in a statement in March.

CA has since tried to hire Cashman Dredging & Marine Contracting Company – the contractor that is dredging Lake Kittamaqundi – for the Lake Elkhorn project, but they were not able to reach an agreement, according to Tuesday's statement from CA.

The winning contractual bid for dredging Lake Elkhorn will be announced after June 15. Dredging work cannot be done until then due to a state moratorium that allows for fish spawning, according to the statement.