Corps Awards Second Contract to Deepen Arthur Kill Channel.

NEW YORK -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New York District today announced the award of a second contract to continue deepening the Arthur Kill channel to 41 feet. The dredging will occur beginning near the confluence of the Arthur Kill channel and the Kill van Kull channel north of Shooters Island and continue to the westerly limit of the New York Container Terminal (formerly Howland Hook Terminal) in Staten Island, New York.

"The award of the second contract in the Arthur Kill signifies the continuation of the larger effort to create a world-class harbor estuary here in the Port of New York and New Jersey," said Col. Richard J. Polo, Jr., the Corps New York District Engineer. "The Army Corps is absolutely committed to a timely completion of navigation improvements within the harbor to meet the growing economic need for goods and services. At the same time, the Corps is equally committed to improving the environmental quality of this very important estuary. As with all our dredging contracts in the New York and New Jersey Harbor estuary, we are once again employing the appropriate dredging techniques to minimize re-suspension and impacts to the environment. The goal at the end is to ensure all dredged material will be used beneficially to enhance the environment."

The Corps $74 million contract is cost-shared with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It is part of an overall $195 million Arthur Kill Deepening project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2007. Work will be performed by Donjon Marine Co. of Hillside, New Jersey. The dredging is expected to remove approximately 2 million cubic yards of material, which includes approximately 600,000 cubic yards of non-rock material that will be processed at the Donjon processing facility at Berth 36 in Port Newark, New Jersey and then used beneficially to close area landfills. Additionally, 900,000 cubic yards of material suitable for use as remediation at the Historic Area Remediation Site (HARS) will be removed as well as 500,000 cubic yards of rock to be deposited at an artificial reef site.

The Arthur Kill channel deepening effort is part of a more extensive harbor-dredging project to create safe and efficient channels for a larger class of vessels that will be calling at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

The newer generation of vessels will save transportation costs for goods coming from overseas, and are more environmentally friendly sporting more fuel-efficient engines while equipped with the latest technologies in air emission control systems.

The Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest on the East coast and directly and indirectly supports more than 229,000 jobs in the New York and New Jersey area. Last year, $100 billion worth of consumer goods ranging from cocoa and orange juice to automobiles moved through the Port, an increase of 12 percent in just a year. Additionally, the Port helps lower the prices that local residents and businesses pay for goods that would otherwise be shipped via distant ports, generating an estimated savings of $750 million a year in reduced transportation costs to business and consumers in addition to the reduced traffic and air pollution impacts associated with transporting the goods into the region by landside methods.