VP Biden Visits Philadelphia To Check Progress of Delaware River Dredging Project
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Vice president Joe Biden toured a dredge boat along the Delaware riverfront today, to promote the ongoing project to deepen the river's shipping channel.
Biden said the dredging project to deepen the Delaware River channel to 45 feet has to continue if the Port of Philadelphia is to remain competitive.
In his speech at Penn's Landing, Biden said 135,000 area jobs are directly and indirectly linked to the ability of ships to navigate the Delaware.
Until the project is completed, Biden says, Philadelphia will lose some business:
"It cuts us out of a whole lot of commerce -- cuts us out of a whole lot of good jobs if they cannot come up the Delaware River."
The dredging job, already more than halfway finished, needs 76 million federal dollars over the next two fiscal years.
Project manager Brian Puckett, of the Illinois-based Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, says that would be money well spent.
"It's absolutely imperative for our economy," Puckett said today.
