Posted on August 1, 2017
By Matt Gray, NJ.com
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded the final contract to complete deepening of the Delaware River shipping channel.
The Corps awarded the $50.3 million project to Norfolk Dredging Co.
The company will dredge about 4 million cubic yards of material from the Tinicum, Eddystone, Chester, Marcus Hook, and Bellevue ranges of the Delaware River’s main channel.
Work is slated to begin next month and wrap up in 2018.
The $300 million project — to deepen the main channel from 40 to 45 feet — began in 2010 and will allow larger vessels and vessels carrying larger cargoes to visit Delaware River ports.
Those ports have deepened their berths in anticipation of receiving larger ships.
The deepened channel will extend from Philadelphia and Camden, from the area of Philadelphia Harbor and Beckett Street Terminal, more than 100 miles to the mouth of the Delaware Bay.
Dredged material is deposited in federally owned disposal facilities, including locations in Salem and Gloucester counties, as well as Fort Mifflin in Pennsylvania.
In total, about 12 million cubic yards of silt, clay, sand and gravel will be dredged from the river portion of the channel and 4 million cubic yards of primarily sand has been dredged from the Delaware Bay.
Source: NJ.com
