Brady announces final appropriation for the Delaware River Deepening project

Brady announces final appropriation for the Delaware River Deepening project

Philadelphia --- Congressman Bob Brady (D. PA) announced today that the final Federal portion for the $364 project to deepen the Delaware River main channel has been appropriated in the House's Energy and Water Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2017.

Brady has fought for the project since he first came to Congress in 1998 in spite of multiple attempts to remove funding from spending bills. And, when the project was revived after over a ten year delay he reached out to Vice President Biden to help ensure that the funding wasn’t redirected to New York. A deeper channel will allow for larger ships to serve the Port of Philadelphia, making the port more competitive and help create thousands of new jobs.

According to the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay the economic impact of cargo activity on the Delaware River Port Complex equates to: $53 billion  contribution to the regional economy; $7.8 billion in wages and salaries; $781 in state and local taxes; and, 135,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs.

“The Delaware River ports contribute mightily to the regional economy and the numbers will grow once the river deepening is completed in 2017. This is a great day for the port and our entire region,” Congressman Brady said.

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