Delaware River Main Channel Deepening Project Almost Done

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company is putting finishing touches on the Delaware River Deepening project.

According to GLDD, the Delaware dredging scheme is almost complete.

In their latest update, the company announced that the 12 year project to deepen the 103-mile shipping channel by a depth of five feet between Philadelphia and the Atlantic Ocean should all come to an end in the next couple of months.

They also added that the dredge New York along with the drillboat Apache have been working tirelessly to break and pick up the rock along this channel.

The completion of this project will allow for bigger ships, more cargo, and even more jobs for the region. 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 ports.

In total, around 12 million cubic yards of material will be removed from the Delaware River Main Channel and placed at existing federal upland Confined Disposal Facilities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

The project, which began in 2008, is cost-shared 35 percent by the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PhilaPort) as the non-federal sponsor, and 65 percent by the federal government through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. – via U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District Marine Design Center.