DESCRIPTION: This navigation asset is located in the north-central part of New Jersey and flows generally southeasterly into Raritan Bay between Perth Amboy and South Amboy, about 24 miles by water south and west of the Battery, New York City. This asset provides for the following: a main channel, 25 feet, deep, 300 feet wide, from the turn in NY and NJ Channels, near Great Beds Light to the Raritan Arsenal Wharf, thence 15 feet deep, 200 feet wide, to the Washington Canal, thence 10 feet deep in soft material and 11 feet deep in rock, and generally 100 feet wide, with widening at bends, to the Delaware and Raritan canal entrance at New Brunswick, with a total length of about 13.8 miles; a turning basin opposite Raritan Arsenal Wharf, 25 feet deep, 300 feet wide and 1,000 feet long; and a south channel 25 feet deep, 300 feet wide, from its junction with the main channel opposite Keasby to the upper limit of former the NL Industries property, 15 feet deep and 150 feet wide to the Middlesex County Sewerage Authority Dock, thence 10 feet deep and 150 feet wide the junction with the Main Channel and Crab Island. The project is about 96% complete; the work remaining to be done is the dredging of the South Channel to a depth of 10 feet and 150 feet wide for a length of 1,300 fee to the upper junction with the main channel at Crab Island (this incomplete work is inactive).
AUTHORIZATION: Authorized by the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1919 (P.L. 65-323), modified in 1930 (P.L. 71-520), 1937 (P.L. 75-392), 1940 (P.L. 76-868) and 1962 (P.L. 87-874). House Resolution (H.R.) 6675 was introduced in August 2018 to deauthorize the portion of the project for navigation known as the Titanium Reach of the South Channel.
COMMERCE: In 2022, the annual commercial freight traffic reported for this this navigation asset was approximately 480,000 tons, compared to a five-year (2018-2022) annual average of nearly 1 million tons, and consisted of petroleum & petroleum products (fuel oils, gasoline, kerosene), and crude materials (sand & gravel).
BACKGROUND: This asset was last maintenance dredged by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in December 2021, when approximately 430,000 cubic yards (CY) of dredged material was removed from the Main Channel (from River Mile 0.0 in Raritan Bay, at the junction of ‘NY & NJ Channels’, to approximately River Mile 3.5, seaward of the Thomas A. Edison Bridge (U.S. Route 9)), with approximately 375,000 CY of the total dredged material being beneficially used at the Historic Area Remediation Site (HARS) in the Atlantic Ocean, and the remaining 55,000 CY being used at upland placement sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Prior to that, the channel was maintenance dredged in FY2014, when approximately 657,000 CY of dredged material was removed from the Main Channel (from River Mile 0.0, to approximately River Mile 1.5 at the junction of ‘Raritan River’ and ‘Raritan River to Arthur Kill Cut-Off Channel, NJ’), with all dredge material beneficially used at the HARS.
STATUS: This navigation asset is currently in caretaker status. Production of an annual hydrographic channel condition survey, and publication of a controlling depth report on the District’s website (https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/Controlling-Depth-Reports/) is scheduled for FY2025.
CONTACT:
Alexander F. Gregory
Asset / Project Manager
P: (917) 790-8427
Email: alexander.f.gregory@usace.army.mil
26 Federal Plaza
New York, NY 10278
http://www.nan.usace.army.mil
District Area: NJ # 6, #12