This project involves dredging as needed within the existing 40-foot Delaware River federal navigation channel to deepen it to 45 feet from Philadelphia Harbor, Pa. and Beckett Street Terminal, Camden, N.J. along a 102.5-mile distance to deepwater in the Delaware Bay. Two contracts have been completed with a third underway (see slides below), together covering about a fourth of the channel's length. Target completion is 2017.

45' Project	Contract 1	Contract 2	Contract 3
Contract 4	Contract 5	Rest of Work	Timeline
Economics	Prior Deepenings

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, with estimated net annualized benefits of more than $13 million to the U.S. economy.

Under a Project Partnership Agreement signed in 2008, the estimated $334* million construction cost is shared 35 percent by the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority as the non-federal sponsor, and 65 percent by the federal government through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

* NOTES ON PROJECT COST:

(1) This $334 million is our current (fiscal 2013) working estimate, inflation-indexed to the midpoint of construction.

(2) It represents the total cost of initial construction, which includes not only the actual dredging of the federal channel and the placement of dredged material, but also costs associated with preparation of confined disposal sites; surveys and monitoring; plans and specifications; engineering and design; environmental studies and economic updates; coordination with federal and state resource agencies; public involvement;  development and execution of the Project Partnership Agreement; and project management, contract management, and support services. 

(3) Of this total, the federal share comes out to $223 million, with the non-federal sponsor (PRPA) responsible for the balance of $111 million. That non-federal portion includes $37 million in associated costs for local port service facilities, such as dredging of shipping berths adjacent to the federal channel -- work that can be financed and accomplished by third parties, but with the sponsor still responsible for its completion.

(4) By the end of this fiscal year (Sept. 30, 2013) we will have received and obligated approximately $132 million: $81 million in federal funds and an additional $51 million from PRPA.

More than 16 million cubic yards of material must be removed during initial construction. Of that amount, approximately 12 million cubic yards of silt, clay, sand and gravel will be dredged from the river portion of the project. There will also be 200,000 cubic yards of rock removed by blasting in the vicinity of Marcus Hook, Pa.

The bulk of the dredging is being performed by hopper and hydraulic pipeline dredges, with a bucket dredge used for rock removal in the Marcus Hook area. The river material is being placed at five existing federal upland confined disposal facilities (CDFs) in New Jersey. (All these sites have been used for channel maintenance ever since it was deepened to 40 feet in the early 1940s, and have more than enough long-term capacity to continue in that role for at least 50 years after the deepening is complete.)

The remaining 4 million cubic yards is primarily good quality sand from the Delaware Bay, to be dredged and placed as beachfill for beneficial use at Kelly Island, Del. (wetland restoration) and at Broadkill Beach, Del. (storm risk reduction).