MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Just in time for spring, the dredging of the Upper Navesink River in Middletown is now complete, the NJ Department of Transportation announced Friday.
Boat navigation has been safely restored starting at the boat ramp at Swimming River Park to the Shrewsbury River Channel, the state assured. As of March 14, boaters should be advised that the State Aids to Navigation (ATON/the channel markers) were removed as necessary for the duration of the dredging, and are expected to be replaced in the next few weeks for the 2025 boating season.
The dredging was meant to restore the river depth to between four and six feet, which the DOT says are safe levels for boating.
Here is a summary of what was done: Dredging boats removed a total of 14,000 cubic yards of sediment from the channel. The river is now at least four feet deep at mean low water from the Swimming River Park boat ramp to the Rt. 35 bridge.
And the river is now at least five feet deep from the Rt. 35 bridge to the Shrewsbury River channel, with 1 foot of possible over depth.
The dredging started in early December. This was a $5 million state-funded project.
At the same time, in a different dredging project, in January the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished a navigation dredging project that deepened the federal channel in South Branchport Creek from the Long Branch town boat ramp to Shrewsbury Bay and the federal channel in the Upper Navesink River.
So the state of NJ says it is now “seamless and safe transit from the Swimming River Park boat ramp to the federal channel.”
The DOT’s contractor that did the dredging was Mobile Dredging & Video Pipe Inc., The dredged material was beneficially utilized as cover at the Monmouth County landfill in Tinton Falls.
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