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 total cost of initial construction, approximately $300 million, 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.

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. 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).