Intracoastal Waterway, Delaware River to Chesapeake Bay, DE & MD (C&D Canal)

USACE Philadelphia District
Published Feb. 22, 2023
USACE’s contractor (DredgIT of Houston, TX) conducts dredging operations in the federal channel of the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal in November 2023. The federal channel hasn’t been dredged in a number of years. The waterway is used by commercial and recreational fishing charter boats, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Delaware Bay and River Cooperative (DBRC), whose mission is oil spill emergency response/cleanup for events occurring in the Delaware River and Bay (Photo by Ed Voigt).

Dredging underway at the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal on November 3, 2023.

USACE’s contractor (DredgIT of Houston, TX) conducts dredging operations in the federal channel of the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal in November 2023. The federal channel hasn’t been dredged in a number of years. The waterway is used by commercial and recreational fishing charter boats, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Delaware Bay and River Cooperative (DBRC), whose mission is oil spill emergency response/cleanup for events occurring in the Delaware River and Bay (Photo by Ed Voigt).

Dredging underway at the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal on November 3, 2023.

USACE’s contractor (DredgIT of Houston, TX) conducts dredging operations in the federal channel of the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal in November 2023. The federal channel hasn’t been dredged in a number of years. The waterway is used by commercial and recreational fishing charter boats, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Delaware Bay and River Cooperative (DBRC), whose mission is oil spill emergency response/cleanup for events occurring in the Delaware River and Bay (Photo by Ed Voigt).

Dredging underway at the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal on November 3, 2023.

USACE’s contractor (DredgIT of Houston, TX) conducts dredging operations in the federal channel of the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal in November 2023. The federal channel hasn’t been dredged in a number of years. The waterway is used by commercial and recreational fishing charter boats, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Delaware Bay and River Cooperative (DBRC), whose mission is oil spill emergency response/cleanup for events occurring in the Delaware River and Bay (Photo by Ed Voigt).

Dredging underway at the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal on November 3, 2023.

C&D Canal Project Index Map

C&D Canal Project Index Map

Approximately 40 percent of the shipping traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore passes through Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District maintains the canal and the bridges that cross it.

Approximately 40 percent of the shipping traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore passes through Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District maintains the canal and the bridges that cross it.

Approximately 40 percent of the shipping traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore passes through Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District maintains the canal and the bridges that cross it.

Approximately 40 percent of the shipping traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore passes through Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District maintains the canal and the bridges that cross it.

Approximately 40 percent of the shipping traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore passes through Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District maintains the canal and the bridges that cross it.

Approximately 40 percent of the shipping traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore passes through Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District maintains the canal and the bridges that cross it.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District is working to paint and repair the Reedy Point Bridge along the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District is working to paint and repair the Reedy Point Bridge along the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District is repairing and painting the Summit Bridge along the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District is repairing and painting the Summit Bridge along the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS: DE-AL, MD-1

APPROPRIATION / PHASE: Operation & Maintenance, General

BUSINESS PROGRAM: Navigation

LOCATION:  The Project connects the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay from Reedy Point, below Delaware City to the upper Chesapeake Bay.

DESCRIPTION: The project was authorized in 1935 (HD 201, 72nd cong., 1st Session) and modified in 1935 (R&H Com Doc 11, R&H Docs 18 and 24, 73rd Cong., 2nd Session), in 1939 (PL 310, 76th Cong., 1st Session and in 1954 (SD 123, 83rd Cong., 2nd Session). 

This project includes the canal waterway, five high-level fixed highway bridges, a vertical lift railroad bridge, entrance jetties at Reedy Point, and maintenance of Delaware City Branch channel and basin. The waterway channel is 35 feet deep and 450 feet wide, extending from Reedy Point on the Delaware River, about 46 miles below Philadelphia, PA, through a land-cut westward to Elk River and onto deep water near Pooles Island in the upper Chesapeake Bay. The average annual traffic over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal bridges equates to roughly 50-55 million vehicles per year. 

The Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D) Canal connects the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay.  The C&D Canal system provides a continuous sea level channel connecting the Port of Baltimore to the ports of Wilmington (DE), Philadelphia, and the northern trade routes.  

Funds are used for minimal routine operation and maintenance of the project, including dispatching, channel exams, and to meet operational safety requirements for five high height highway bridges. Funding is also used to maintain buildings, grounds, utilities, canal banks & dredge material containment facilities, routine operations of bridges, maintenance dredging of critical shoals within the 46 mile the navigation channel; periodic inspection of Chesapeake City, St. George’s, Delaware City, and SR-1 Bridges, Repair Cable Stays on SR-1 Bridge, and bridge repairs and maintenance. 

PROJECT GOALS: The purpose of this project provides for a waterway extending from Reedy Point on the Delaware River through a land-cut westward to Elk River, four high-level fixed highway bridges, a vertical lift railroad bridge, a bascule drawbridge, extensions of the entrance jetties at Reedy Point, enlargement of the anchorage and mooring basin in Back Creek, and maintenance of Delaware City Branch channel  and basin.

PROJECT MANAGER: Mike Hart