Vice President Tours Delaware River Project

Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Casey, Congressmen Brady and Fattah and state, local and industry leaders toured Thursday ongoing Delaware River Main Channel Deepening operations in Philadelphia.

Brian Puckett, project manager for Great Lakes Dredging & Dock Co., welcomed the guest aboard the barge, one of the vessels that will be used for the project, giving a few more insights on the $300 million Delaware River dredging project.

During the visit, Biden emphasized that the project is very important for keeping Philadelphia competitive and that dredging of Delaware River will allow larger vessels to enter Philadelphia port. “We need this work,” he said. “We need this port.”

The deeper channel will provide for more efficient transportation of containerized, dry bulk (steel and slag) and liquid bulk (crude oil and petroleum products) cargo to and from the Delaware River.

Delaware River dredging project, which covers the 102-mile stretch from Philadelphia to the ocean, involves dredging within the existing 40-foot Delaware River federal navigation channel to deepen it to 45 feet.

More than 16 million cubic yards of material will be removed during initial construction. Of that amount, approximately 12 million cubic yards of silt, clay, sand and gravel will be dredged from the river portion of the project by hopper and hydraulic pipeline dredges, with a bucket dredge. The remaining 4 million cubic yards is primarily good quality sand from the Delaware Bay, to be dredged and reused for beach replenishment projects.

The project is expected to be completed until March 31, 2015.

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Dredging Today Staff