Services
Dredging
Dredging
Let us handle the hassle of permitting and keep your waterways deep, clean, and fully navigable with professional dredging services built for performance and reliability. We specialize in removing sediment, muck, and debris to restore proper depth, improve water flow, and protect your waterfront investment.
Using modern, high-efficiency equipment operated by experienced crews, we complete projects safely, precisely, and on schedule. From routine maintenance dredging to full-scale channel restoration, we handle projects of all sizes with the same attention to detail and quality.
Whether you’re maintaining a private dock, marina, canal, or shoreline, we deliver long-lasting results that improve usability, appearance, and property value—without unnecessary disruption.
How the work goes
1. Survey and depth target
We measure what you actually have at low water under the hull, the lift cradle and the approach, not at midday. A bathymetric survey sets the starting point and turns the job into a volume in cubic yards, which is what the permit and the scope are built on.
2. Permitting, handled by us
Dredging touches the state (FDEP or the water management district), the Army Corps of Engineers and your county's environmental office. We handle the permitting: the exemption verification or permit application and the filings with each agency, so you are not chasing three of them.
3. Dredging
For a private dock, slip or residential canal the work is typically mechanical: a bucket working from a barge or the seawall, with turbidity curtains in place and a manatee watch as the permit requires. Modern high-efficiency equipment and experienced crews keep the job precise and on schedule, from routine maintenance dredging of a single slip to full channel restoration.
4. Spoil and clean-up
Dredged material is lifted to a barge or container, allowed to drain, and trucked to a permitted upland site. Nothing goes back in the water and nothing is stockpiled on your lawn. You get a clean canal and a few truckloads leaving.
Exemptions and permits: what you are signing up for
Any dredging or filling in Florida waters is regulated by FDEP and the five water management districts under the Environmental Resource Permit program, and separately by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; FDEP tells applicants to obtain all needed authorizations from all of these agencies before dredging. [floridadep.gov]
Most residential jobs aim for the maintenance dredging exemption in Florida Statute 403.813(1)(f). It applies when you only restore an existing man-made canal or channel to its original design depth and width, the spoil goes to a self-contained upland site that prevents it escaping back into state waters, turbidity controls and manatee protections are followed, and the canal was built before April 3, 1970 or later under proper state permits. Removing a plug or barrier between a canal and open water is never covered. [flsenate.gov]
The exemption is best confirmed in writing with FDEP's or the district's request for verification of exemption before work starts. [floridadep.gov]
Palm Beach and Manatee counties add their own environmental review on top of the state and federal layers, and Manatee falls under the Southwest Florida district rather than the South Florida one. The county-by-county detail is in our dredging permit guide for South Florida.
- Miami-Dade: a DERM Class I permit is required before any work in, on, over or upon tidal waters or coastal wetlands anywhere in the county. [miamidade.gov]
- Miami-Dade: non-maintenance dredging of more than 100 square feet of submerged land is a standard-form application, which goes to the county commission at a public hearing; maintenance dredging of an existing canal is the easier path. [miamidade.elaws.us]
- Broward: the county's environmental permitting division reviews dredge and fill, and an Environmental Resource License is required before any dredging or filling where a site contains wetlands. [broward.org]
- Everywhere: the Army Corps' standard manatee conditions apply to in-water work; operations stop if a manatee comes within 50 feet and resume only after it leaves or 30 minutes pass. [saj.usace.army.mil]
How deep a slip or canal can be dredged
Two numbers matter. The regulatory ceiling: under the maintenance exemption, unless older Trustees or Army Corps permits show a deeper original design, dredging is limited to 5 feet below mean low water. [flsenate.gov]
The practical target: enough water under the hull, the lift cradle at its lowest position and the prop at the lowest normal tide, with a margin for the next few years of silt. South Florida canals can swing up to 2.5 feet between tides in most areas, so measure at the lowest tide point, not at midday. [hurricaneboatlifts.com]
A bathymetric survey maps the bottom and is used to calculate the volume of material to remove, which is how a contractor sizes the job in cubic yards. [oceanconsultingfl.com]
If your lift cradle is hitting bottom at low tide, the choices are a shallower-water lift or dredging the slip. The survey tells you how much material stands between you and the water you need, and whether it is loose silt or compacted sand and shell, which changes the equipment and the day count.
Mechanical vs hydraulic, and where the spoil goes
Hydraulic dredging mixes the bottom into a slurry and pumps it through a pipeline to a dewatering area; it performs best with loose, fine sediment in large, open areas. Mechanical dredging digs the bottom with a bucket from a barge or the shore; it handles sand, shell, rock and debris, works with precision in tight slips and needs far less pipeline and staging space. [pilebuck.com]
The choice depends on sediment type, contamination, disposal requirements and how close the site is to shore facilities. Most private-dock and canal jobs in South Florida end up mechanical for those reasons. [imsdredge.com]
Fort Lauderdale's own canal crews use the clamshell method, drain the sediment in a container aboard the barge, then load it onto trucks bound for a landfill, which is the same sequence a residential job follows. [fortlauderdale.gov]
Florida requires spoil from maintenance dredging to go to a self-contained upland site that prevents the material escaping into state waters, and requires turbidity control devices during the work. [flsenate.gov]
Whose job is it: the city, the HOA or you?
It depends on the canal. Lauderdale-By-The-Sea dredged its town canals with permits from the Army Corps, FDEP and Broward County; the town began pursuing permits in 2020 and started Phase 1 in December 2022, which took about two months. [lauderdalebythesea-fl.gov]
Where a town or HOA dredges, it usually passes the cost through an assessment: Longboat Key's 2026 canal dredge was split 80/20 between canal-front owners and everyone else. [yourobserver.com]
Municipal programs, where they exist, tend to dredge the navigable center of the canal, not the water at your seawall or under your lift. If the shoaling is in your slip, plan on a private job. A shared canal can be dredged as one project with neighbors sharing the mobilization, which is often the most efficient way to do it.
Questions we hear
Do I need a permit to dredge my canal in Florida?
Almost always, or at least a written exemption. Dredging is regulated by FDEP and the water management districts under the Environmental Resource Permit program, separately by the Army Corps of Engineers, and by county environmental offices such as DERM in Miami-Dade and Broward's environmental permitting division. Maintenance dredging of an existing man-made canal can qualify for a state exemption, but it still has to be documented and cleared with the federal and county layers. We handle that permitting. [source]
What is maintenance dredging, and does my canal qualify for the exemption?
Maintenance dredging restores an existing canal or channel to its original design depth and width. Florida exempts it from the state permit when the spoil goes to a self-contained upland site, turbidity and manatee protections are followed, and the canal was built before April 3, 1970 or later under proper state permits. Deepening beyond the original design, widening, or removing a plug between the canal and open water is not maintenance. Ask for the exemption to be verified in writing. [source]
How deep can a boat slip be dredged in Florida?
Under the maintenance exemption the ceiling is 5 feet below mean low water unless older permits show a deeper original design. The practical target is enough water under the hull and the lift cradle at the lowest normal tide, plus a margin for future silt. Canals in South Florida can swing up to 2.5 feet between tides, so the number that matters is measured at low water. A survey converts that into cubic yards. [source]
How much does it cost to dredge a canal or boat slip?
Dredging is priced on the job, not the foot, and we do not publish prices. The drivers are how many cubic yards have to come out (depth times area, from a survey), what the material is (loose silt versus compacted sand or shell), how the equipment reaches the water (an open seawall versus a lift and dock in the way), how far the spoil travels to an upland site, and which permit path applies. A site visit and survey come first.
Where does the dredged material go?
Not back in the water. Florida requires spoil from maintenance dredging to be placed on a self-contained upland site that keeps both the mud and the drain-back water out of state waters. On a residential job the material is lifted to a barge or container, allowed to drain, then trucked to a permitted disposal or fill site. Fort Lauderdale's own canal crews follow the same clamshell, container and truck sequence. [source]
How long does dredging take, and how long do the permits take?
The work is the short part. One Florida dredging firm puts a single boat slip at about a week; a shared canal runs weeks. Permitting is the long part: a verified maintenance exemption is fastest, a full state permit plus federal review runs months, and anything needing a Miami-Dade public hearing or seagrass mitigation runs longer. Lauderdale-By-The-Sea pursued permits from 2020 and started dredging in December 2022. Plan the boat season around the paperwork. [source]
How often should a canal or marina be dredged?
There is no fixed interval, and we have not found an agency source that sets one. Siltation depends on the canal's shape, the tidal flow, upstream runoff and boat traffic, so two canals a mile apart can shoal at different rates. The practical approach is to note the depth at low tide under your lift each year and to survey when it starts to drop. A survey every few years is cheap compared with grounding a boat or a lift cradle sitting in the mud.
Do you handle the permits yourself, and do you also build docks and seawalls?
Yes on both. Permitting is part of our dredging service, and we file with the state, the Army Corps and the county rather than handing you a list of agencies. Langley Coastal also builds and repairs docks, pilings, boat lifts and seawalls, so a slip that needs dredging and a seawall toe that needs attention can be handled as one project. We work in Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Manatee counties under Florida general contractor license CGC1538377.
Guides
Sourced answers to the questions we hear most.
Dredging — Waterfront Areas We Serve
What our customers say
Quality work that was completed ahead of schedule. We were pleased with their consistent communication throughout the project and the ability to meet deadlines and solve complex problems. Their focus on safety and quality was evident.