US Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District

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Contact: Ed Voigt

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Phila, PA 19107-3390

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Delaware River Main Channel Deepening Project

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Delaware River Main Channel Deepening Project Map

In 1983, Congress directed the Philadelphia District to begin a study to determine if it was in the federal interest to modify the existing 40-foot Delaware River main shipping channel. In 1987, the study progressed to the feasibility phase where we performed extensive environmental and economic studies. The 1992 final feasibility report recommended to Congress that the channel be deepened to 45-feet and that doing so was environmentally sound, economically justified and technically feasible. Congress supported that recommendation by authorizing the deepening project for construction in 1992.

The Delaware River Main Channel Deepening will cost approximately $277 million dollars -- with about two-thirds funded by the federal government and the remainder by the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, the non-federal sponsor. The project is designed to deepen the existing main shipping channel of the Delaware River from 40 feet to 45 feet from Philadelphia Harbor, Pennsylvania and Beckett Street Terminal, Camden, New Jersey to the mouth of the Delaware Bay.

The project follows the existing 40-foot federal main shipping channel alignment. The existing authorized widths in the straight portions of the channel, ranging from 400 feet in Philadelphia to 1,000 feet in the bay, will not change. However, 12 of the existing 16 bends in the channel will be widened for safer navigation. In addition, the Marcus Hook Anchorage will be deepened to 45 feet.

To deepen the channel, approximately 16.4 million cubic yards of material must be removed during initial construction of the project. Of that amount, approximately 12.3 million cubic yards of sand, silt, and clay will be taken from the river portion of the project -- the area from Philadelphia/Camden to the Upper Delaware Bay. About 77,000 cubic yards of rock will also be removed from the Marcus Hook area of the river.

The dredge material from the river portion is slated for placement at existing federal upland Confined Disposal Facilities, or CDFs, in New Jersey and Delaware.