N.Y.-N.J.’s Arthur Kill 41-foot navigation project completed

N.Y.-N.J.Æs Arthur Kill 41-foot navigation project completed The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced the completion of the Arthur Kill 41-foot navigation project Tuesday.
   Deepening the Arthur Kill channel began in July 2003 and is part of a much larger project to deepen all of the federal channels in the New York and New Jersey area, some to 50 feet. These channels include the Kill Van Kull, Port Newark, Port Elizabeth, the Hudson River, the East River, and the Ambrose Channel. The whole of the project should be finished by 2012 and is the largest civil works project in construction on a national scale, according to Peter Shugert of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
   The project carries a billion-dollar price tag, but Shugert said that deepening the channels is “critical to realizing the full potential of the New York Container Terminal. It can now accommodate deeper draft vessels.”
   Shugert went on to note that there is an environmental component to the project as well, as 23 acres of tidal salt marsh are being restored in the process.
   The Arthur Kill Channel spans the New York-New Jersey harbor and extends to the New York Container Terminal in Staten Island.
   “Deeper channels and berths, combined with a new on-dock rail system that will open shortly, will give Howland Hook the tools it needs to continue to compete for international business,” Port Authority Director Anthony E. Shorris said.