The federal agency overseeing the $706 million deepening of the shipping channel to the Port of Savannah says it now expects dredging to start three months sooner than expected.

The Army Corps of Engineers said Friday workers should begin dredging the outer portion of the 39-mile channel in early September. Corps officials had planned to wait until December.

The agency also announced Friday that is has awarded a $99.6 million contract to a Florida company to install machines designed to boost the level of dissolved oxygen in the Savannah River for fish to breathe.

Testing those oxygen injectors to ensure they work before deepening the inner harbor was a key piece of an out-of-court settlement reached between the Corps and conservationists who sued to halt the harbor expansion.