The Craney Island Dredged Material Management Area is a 2,500-acre confined dredged material disposal site located near Norfolk, VA. Plans for the site were developed in the early 1940s to provide a long-term disposal area for material dredged from the channels and ports in the Hampton Roads area. Hampton Roads, including the ports of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Newport News, and Hampton, comprises Virginia's greatest port complex. Hampton Roads is generally recognized as the southernmost boundary of the Boston-New York-Washington industrial, commercial, residential, and recreational complex. Commercial, agricultural, and industrial development in the Hampton Roads area, along with the movement of naval vessels, is dependent upon maintaining project depths in the Hampton Roads channels. Prior to and during World War II, dredged material removed from these channels was primarily disposed of in open water sites. As these open water sites neared capacity at the end of the war, Congress authorized a study to determine a more permanent and lasting means for disposing of dredged material from the Hampton Roads area. As a result, development of the Craney Island Disposal Area was recommended and approved by Congress under the River and Harbor Act of 1946. Actual construction of Craney Island was completed in 1957. Since that time, this site has received maintenance, private, and permit dredged material from numerous dredging projects in the Hampton Roads area.