Page 14: of Marine News Magazine (June 2005)

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Port Authority of New York and New

Jersey recently announced the award of $79 million dollar project to deepen the

Kill Van Kull in the Port of New York and

New Jersey to 50 ft, an effort to meet the growing demands of the port and to improve navigational safety and accom- modate the next generation of cargo ves- sels that require deep water to operate.

The Kill Van Kull is a main artery between Upper New York and Newark

Bay that provides access to Port Elizabeth and Port Newark in New Jersey and the

New York Container Terminal in Staten

Island. There are overall plans to deepen areas in Ambrose, Anchorage, Newark

Bay, Arthur Kill, Port Jersey and Bay

Ridge channels over the course of the next decade. "The Corps is building safe and effi- cient channels to meet the growing needs of the shipping industry and the region's ever increasing demands for goods and services, while balancing the environ- mental needs of our harbor estuary," said

Col. Richard J. Polo, Jr., the Corps New

York District Engineer. "The Corps, along with our sponsor, contractors and partner agencies, employ the best avail- able dredging technologies on this project as well as take a lead role in improving the harbor estuary. So, what is really exciting is that all materials dredged dur- ing construction of these underwater highways are, and will continue to be used beneficially, to either close landfills that were leaching contaminants into the harbor, remediate brownfields into wet- lands, create recreational fishing reefs or cap the Historic Area Remediation Site formerly known as the Mud Dump. It is truly a challenging construction project but equally as important, it is also an environmental success story in the mak- ing."

Port Authority Chairman Anthony R.

Coscia said, "We continue to make his- toric levels of investments in our port, including our $760 million contribution to deepen the harbor channels to 50 feet.

This project will ensure that more goods are moved into and out of this region, which will allow us to remain competi- tive in the marketplace as we strive to boost job growth and economic activity for the New York and New Jersey region." Port Authority Executive Direc- tor Kenneth J. Ringler Jr. said, "This channel-deepening project is a critical part of the Port Authority's aggressive plan to make sure our port remains the leading East Coast destination for inter- national shippers. The 50-foot channels, coupled with our $600 million investment in new rail infrastructure, will make sure we remain competitive with other East

Coast ports, which will allow us to attract more cargo and the resulting economic activity and thousands of jobs in New

York and New Jersey associated with it."

The contract was awarded to Bean

Stuyvesant, LLC of New Orleans, which will be excavating more than 2.5 million cubic yards of materials. Of this amount, 128,000 cubic yards consist of fine- grained sediments, which will be treated and then used as landfill cover at the

EnCap Redevelopment Project site and the Catellus Port Reading Business Park

Redevelopment Project in New Jersey.

The remaining 2.4 million cubic yards of clean glacial till will be utilized to cap historic deposits of dredged material at the Historic Area Remediation Site in the

Atlantic Ocean. Most of the rock that is dredged will be used to create fishing reefs off the Jersey shore. This contract area is scheduled for completion by 2007.

Additionally, last December, the Corps completed deepening the Kill Van Kull and Newark Bay channels to 45 feet. A portion known as Area 5 near Bergen

Point, New Jersey, presents a difficult turn for containerships and other large vessels navigating into Port Elizabeth and

Port Newark, thus the Coast Guard has established special requirements for tran- sit "queue's" to ensure the continued safe use of the waterway by all users while dredging continues. This area has already been deepened to 50 feet under a special contract with the Port Authority. Other ongoing work in the Harbor includes interim deepenings of the Arthur Kill

Channel to 41 feet, as well as the Port Jer- sey Channel that services the Global

Marine Terminal in Bayonne to 41 feet. 14 • MarineNews • June, 2005

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NEWS $79M Deepening Project Begins have the hull strength to hold liquid mud, a much heavier product than crude oil.

Specialized tankers carrying molten sul- fur had the hull strength to hold high vol- umes of liquid mud.

From a cost standpoint, Hornbeck feels the conversion cost of one of these tankers will be about the same as a new

UT-745 or a 280-ft. class of supply boat. "To build a pair of vessels with the same capabilities of the HOS 370 would be about $120 million or about twice our expected investment" Hornbeck added.

There are 327 deepwater fields in the

GOM and a backlog of 1066 approved applications to drill in over 1,000-ft. of water. Also there are 13 more floating production units scheduled to be deliv- ered to the GOM by 2008, a 50 percent increase from units now online.

Infrastructure for deepwater produc- tion is expected to increase by 60 percent by 2010. A large number of pipelines, tiebacks and other subsea construction work will place extreme demands on the equipment currently available.

Hornbeck has design these tankers to do more than haul liquid mud, although that will be their most outstanding attribute. Hornbeck says the vessels are a "Swiss Army Knife" approach well beyond the capabilities of existing sup- ply vessels. The converted tankers are expected to enter service by the end of 2006 and the cost will be funded by cash on hand, projected free cash flow and available revolving credit capacity. (Continued from previous page)

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