A coral reef outside of Miami will be dredged as planned, despite concerns from the scientific and environmentalist communities.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a request from researchers for an extension to continue relocating the stationary animals from the proposed dredge site to a new artificial reef sanctuary.

Dredging a river severely disrupts the ecosystem of the environment, and can be fatal for creatures such as coral, which, though stationary, build vast, complex communities over centuries. Environmental concerns were outweighed by monetary factors, a common occurrence in such cases.

“Taxpayers would be paying $50,000 to $100,000 a day to keep that dredge on standby and that’s not happening,” said Susan Jackson, a corps spokeswoman told Reuters.

Port officials decided to deepen the channel 50 feet (15 m) in preparation for the upcoming expansion of the Panama Canal. Officials are hoping to lure larger cargo ships through the shipping lanes to establish Miami as a major thoroughfare en route to the epicenter of international shipping.

The Army Corps of Engineers ordered the dredging contractor, Illinois-based Great Lakes Dredge & Dock, to relocate more than 900 coral from the proposed site to a new artificial reef. However, after the work was completed on May 26, researchers started daily dives and were able to save thousands more coral from destruction.

“We’ve been able to remove more than 2,000 corals in less than two weeks and if we had another two weeks we’d get thousands more,” said Colin Foord, a marine biologist and co-founder of Miami-based Coral Morphologic, which is part marine biology lab and part art and music studio, via Reuters.

The $150 million dredging project resumed June 6, despite allegations that the types and numbers of coral in the Miami channel were underestimated by previous environmental studies.