NJ Marinas To Benefit From Release Of Dredging Funds

Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) has allocated $4.1 million in federal funding for the dredging of Cheesequake Creek in Middlesex County. Representative Pallone, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) urged the Corps to support the dredging project, citing the adverse impacts on navigation, safety, and the local economy resulting from the lack of maintenance for decades.

Cheesequake Creek, a shallow-draft recreational channel, serves as an inlet from the Raritan Bay for hundreds of recreational vessels that utilize the five public marinas on the creek. In recent years, sediment deposition in the creek has dramatically increased, impacting navigation, safety and overall usage of the channel. The problem was exacerbated by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, resulting in large amounts of sediment being deposited in the waterway and further impacting its depth.

The last maintenance dredging of the Cheesequake Creek was performed in 1989 by the state of New Jersey, but no further maintenance has been performed in the last three decades. The Corps estimates that there are currently between 6,000 and 6,500 cubic yards of sediment required to be dredged to meet that authorized depth.

Funding for this project was included in the Operation and Maintenance Budget for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ FY2020 Work Plan. The Cheesequake Creek project competed for funding against dozens of shallow draft navigation projects nationwide. Federal maintenance of the waterway was originally authorized by Congress in 1880 and was last dredged by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1949.