BATH – Silt in the Kennebec River has prompted emergency dredging to allow destroyers to go between Bath Iron Works and the sea.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ordered the federal navigation channel in the river dredged because destroyers can’t get through it even at high tide.

The dredging is scheduled to be completed by mid-month.

A regularly scheduled survey of the river by the Corps of Engineers found a natural buildup of silt at two places on the river.

Most navigable New England rivers are dredged every four to five years, said Bob Byrne of the U.S. Army Corps.

The Kennebec was last dredged in 1997.