Cat Island near Green Bay Harbor
Cat Island near Green Bay Harbor

Luedtke Engineering Company returns to Green Bay Harbor for the fourth time in the last five years to complete maintenance dredging of the federal navigational channel. Each year clean dredge material is beneficially reused by being pumped into island cells of the Cat Island Chain restoration project. 

Environmental windows continue to pose the challenge of restricting the time allowed to complete the work each year. However, the dredging Luedtke has been completing is a key component in this environmental endeavor to restore the Cat Island Chain. The aim of this 20+ year project is to diversify wetland habitat for various wildlife species, improve water quality, and help the local sport and commercial fisheries. Already, there have been documented increases in bird numbers with the white pelican, snowy owl, and the endangered whooping crane and piping plover.

A fourth generation, family-owned business since 1930, Luedtke Engineering Company is a full-service marine construction company specializing in mechanical and hydraulic dredging, dock walls, breakwaters, and other marine structures. Luedtke is proud of its deep Wisconsin roots. Founder Elroy R. "Duke" Luedtke was born in Reedsville and began his career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Milwaukee. Some of the company's first projects were constructing and rebuilding breakwaters in Algoma in 1932 and Kewaunee in 1935.