Cape Porpoise Harbor in Kennebunkport is about to be dredged for the first time since 1976, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

A $1.68 million contract was issued recently by the Army Corps to Coastline Consulting and Development LLC of Bramford, Connecticut, which will start the maintenance dredging operation Nov. 1. The project is expected to take two to four months to complete.

Natural shoaling processes and the building up a sediment in the harbor have reduced depths to as little as 1 foot in the area at low tide, making navigation hazardous or impossible at the lower stages of the tide, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

About 30,000 cubic yards of sandy and fine-grained material will be dredged from the 6-foot channel and 15-foot anchorage and channel and dumped at an ocean-floor disposal site five nautical miles outside the harbor.

The corps’ most recent dredging of the harbor was in 1976, when about 123,000 cubic yards of sediment was removed and placed at the Cape Arundel Disposal Site.

Two men bring crates of lobsters in to the dock at Cape Porpoise at dusk on Monday, November 14, 2016. (Photo by Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)

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