Channel Deepening: New York/New Jersey
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey on September 2 announced the completion of the bi-state seaport’s Main Navigation Channel Deepening Program.
The $2.1 billion project, cost shared between the Corps and the Port Authority, was initiated prior to the announced improvements to the Panama Canal. From 1989 to 2016, 38 miles of federal navigation channels in the New York Harbor have been deepened to a navigable depth.
As described in a corps fact sheet, the project provides 50 foot/15-meter water access to the port’s four container terminals by deepening Ambrose Channel from deep water in the Atlantic Ocean to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the Anchorage Channel (from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to its confluence with the Port Jersey Channel), the Kill Van Kull Channel, the main Newark Bay Channel to Pt. Elizabeth and the Port Elizabeth and South Elizabeth tributary channels, the Arthur Kill Channel adjacent to the New York Container Terminal), and the Port Jersey.
"This harbor deepening may be the most important and influential project related to modern day economics in the Northeast. Modern-day container ships may now enter the port fully loaded and safely," said Col. David Caldwell, the Army Corps’ New York District Commander. "The harbor deepening was accomplished safely even while the port remained opened throughout all phases of construction, whether dredging or blasting. The work we recognize with this completion is a testament to the dedication and hard work or the New York District, Port Authority and a host of partners and stakeholders."
In addition to the economic benefits to the port commerce, sand dredged from the channels was used to restore wetland habitats at several marsh sites within Jamaica Bay, N.Y. and wetlands within an existing impacted brownfield site in Lincoln Park, New Jersey. Approximately 900,000 cubic yards of sands and glacial tills from the Port Jersey Channel was used to restore shallow water fish habitat in an unused navigation channel south of the former Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne (NJ).
"Completion of the harbor deepening project is a major milestone in our efforts to meet the needs of the region’s 23 million consumers now and in the future," said Port Authority Port Department Director Molly Campbell, PPM®. "It culminates more than 25 years of work and $6 billion in public and private sector investment to ready the port for the new generation of vessels, and will continue to support the 336,000 jobs and billions in economic activity the port generates."