A. V. Wills & Sons had four steam-powered dipper dredges built for the job at Belhaven, NC, about thirty miles west of the lake. The dredge boat crews lived on board and the boats had lights that permitted 24-hour dredging operations. Small gasoline-powered skiffs pulled coal barges to the dredge boats to supply fuel for the steam engines and water barges to supply clean fresh water for the boilers. 

Work began in April 1914 on the north shore of the Pamlico Sound, seven miles due south of the proposed pumping plant, with the objective of dredging a large navigable canal to the site of the proposed pumping plant. This canal would provide access to the lake for large boats and barges to transport the necessary building material for the pumping plant and would be the main outlet for the fresh lake water to be drained into the Pamlico Sound. The canal was 70 feet wide at the top and 60 feet wide at the bottom and was named “Outfall Canal”. The contractor completed this canal, which involved excavating 754,000 cubic yards or virgin earth, trees, roots, and stumps, in just eight months.

Having completed Outfall Canal, the dredges moved into the lake, and dredged 76 more miles of canals in the lake bed to bring the water to the pumping plant. The plan called for a “West Main Canal” and an “East Main Canal” running from the northern end of Outfall Canal to the west and east ends of the lake and a series of nine north-south canals extending from these main canals entirely across the lake on a north-south line. Each canal was elevated to allow the natural flow of water from the farthest point to the pumping plant which was built on the south-central shore of the huge body of water.

It quickly became evident that the original dredging plan was inadequate to drain all of the lake, so the Commissioners amended the dredging contract, expanding the plan to 130 miles of canals. The contractor completed the revised dredging contract in early 1919.