Shrewsbury and Navesink dredging kicks off

New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. yesterday announced the start of a major dredging project of the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers.

Pallone secured $26 million for maintenance dredging of the rivers in a federal spending bill for Fiscal Year 2023 that President Biden signed into law late last year.

The Army Corps of Engineers will dredge both the entrance of the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers at Sandy Hook as well as the Navesink River to Red Bank and the Shrewsbury River as far as the Branchport Avenue Bridge in Long Branch – a total of approximately 14 miles.

This is the federal channel that covers most of the waterway boaters use.

The dredging project will take place in three phases.

The first phase of the project includes dredging sand material at the mouth of the Shrewsbury River in Sandy Hook Bay to the Route 36 bridge.

The second phase of the project will include dredging the remaining sandy material down the Shrewsbury River into the Navesink River as far as the Oceanic Bridge.

Sand will then be pumped onto portions of Monmouth Beach. The third phase includes dredging the rest of the federal channel inside the two rivers.