Port of Chester

For the village in Westchester County, New York, see Port Chester.

Port of Chester
Port of Chester seen through Commodore Barry Bridge
Click on the map for a fullscreen view
Location
Country	United States
Location	Chester, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	39.8527302°N 75.3442906°W / 39.8527302; -75.3442906
Details
Draft depth	45 feet
Air draft	188 feet[1]

The Port of Chester is an American port on the west bank of the Delaware River in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Centered around Chester it ranges into Marcus Hook to the south and Eddystone to the north. It is part of the Delaware Valley port complex and lies between the Port of Wilmington and the Port of Philadelphia. Traditionally, shipbuilding and later automobile assembly were the mainstays of the port. It has since given way to other manufacturing and recreational activities, with Penn Terminals the only traditional maritime facility.

History

Chester waterfront ca 1875

• William Penn Landing Site is near the confluence of Chester Creek and the Delaware River.
• Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company - The United States' biggest post-Civil War shipyard was founded by the Sun Oil Company in 1917 as a private shipyard for production of oil tankers. During the period between the First and Second World Wars, when many other yards were shut down due to a surplus in vessels and the Great Depression, Sun maintained its building pace as the US began to move away from coal as the main source of fuel for ships, powerplants and machinery and into oil. It closed in 1990. The US Navy has named ships USS Chester in honor of the port.
• Chester Waterside Station of the Philadelphia Electric Company
• Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works and later Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation Chester shipyard, which had been in existence since 1859 and built close to 350 ships during the course of its history. It was sold to the Ford Motor Company and became a factory motor vehicles called Chester Assembly, which opened in 1927 and closed in 1961.
• Chester Rolling Mill
• Eddystone Arsenal (a division of Baldwin Locomotive Works)
• Wade Dump, a former industrial site

Location and access

The waterfront is part of the Delaware Valley port complex. It is located on the west bank of Delaware River in Chester, Eddystone and Ridley Park. It is upstream of the Trainer Refinery and downstream of Philadelphia International Airport. Stoney Creek, Chester Creek, Ridley Creek, Crum Creek and Darby Creek mouth along the shore.[2]

Shipping channel

Route 291 is known as the Industrial Heritage Highway

CSX Philadelphia Subdivision at Chester

In the "project of 1885" the U.S. government undertook systematically the formation of a 26-foot (7.9 m) shipping channel 600 feet (180 m) wide from Philadelphia to deep water in Delaware Bay. The River and Harbor Act of 1899 provided for a 30-foot (9.1 m) channel 600 feet (180 m) wide from Philadelphia to the deep water of the bay.[3]

Since 1941, the Delaware River Main Channel was maintained at a depth of 40 ft (12 m). A 102.5-mile stretch of this federal navigation channel, from Port of Philadelphia and Port of Camden to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, was deepened to 45 ft (14 m), which was completed in 2017.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Navigational aids

The Marcus Hook Range Lights are range lights downstream of the port; Tinicum Island Range Lights are upstream of it. Additional navigational aids are located along the shore.[10][11]

Roads

Pennsylvania Route 291 parallels the river and is known as the Industrial Heritage Highway.[12]

The Commodore Barry Bridge carries U.S. Route 322. U.S. Route 13 also runs through Chester. Interstate 95 and Interstate 476 are nearby and intersect at Crum Lynne.

Rail service

Rail service to the port is within Conrail's South Jersey/Philadelphia Shared Assets Area, based at Pavonia Yard over Delair Bridge, the most downstream railroad bridge, crossing the Delaware at Pennsauken, New Jersey.[13][14] The Stoney Creek Secondary parallels the port and has on site spurs. Norfolk Southern Railway (with connecting BNSF Railway service) and CSX Transportation Philadelphia Subdivision are also active.

The Wilmington/Newark Line, originally built by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, is a commuter rail line is one of the 13 lines in SEPTA's SEPTA Regional Rail network.

Facilities

Maritime, water, energy and industrial

Kimberly-Clark at confluence of Chester Creek and the Delaware River

• DELCORA (Delaware County Regional Water Authority) wastewater treatment facility[15]
• Reworld Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility[16]
• Evonik Degussa
• GWSI Warehousng[17]
• River Bridge Industrial Center
• Kimberly-Clark[18][19]
• Chester Water Authority[20]
• Penn Terminals 80 Acres (32 hectares)[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]
• Barry Callebaut
• Exelon Eddystone Generating Station[30]
• Boeing (formerly Boeing Rotorcraft Systems, now part of Boeing Defense, Space & Security)

Commercial, tourism and recreation

• Wharf at Rivertown[31]
• Subaru Park is an American soccer-specific stadium is home to the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer.[32] The project is the result of combined commitments of $30 million from Delaware County and $47 million from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Talen Energy is the stadium's naming rights sponsor.
• Harrah's Philadelphia was built on the site of the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company.
• East Coast Greenway runs along the shore.

Gallery

• 
  Chester Waterside Station Machine Shop now Philadelphia Union
• 
  Subaru Park
• 
  Harrahs Philadelphia
• 
  Eddystone Rifle Factory
• 
  MH-47.Chinook produced at Boeing

References

1. "Bridges and Cables" (PDF). Moran Shipping. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
2. "Industrial Hwy Transportation Improvements, Route 291, LR-542, Chester, Delaware County: Environmental Impact Statement". Federal Highway Administration. 1986. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
3.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Delaware River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 951.
4. United States Army Corps of Engineers. Delaware River Main Channel Deepening. Retrieved July 25, 2013.
5. Ruch, Robert J. Ruch (Lt. Col.), District Engineer, Philadelphia District. Delaware River Main Channel Deepening Project Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (January 20, 2005). Retrieved July 14, 2013.
6. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Delaware River Main Channel Deepening Project. (May 2012). Retrieved July 14, 2013.
7. Delaware Riverkeeper. The Delaware River Main Channel Deepening Project: Background Archived July 16, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
8. "Epic Effort to Deepen Delaware River Shipping Channel Nears End - NJ Spotlight". www.njspotlight.com.
9. "Murky Bottom: Will Deeper Delaware River Make Philly More Competitive? - NJ Spotlight". www.njspotlight.com.
10. "Online List of Lights -> Leuchtfeuerindex". listoflights.org.
11. "Light List Atlantic Coast" (PDF). U.S. Department ofHomeland Security & United StatesCoast. 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
12. "Industrial Heritage Parkway" (PDF).
13. "System Map - Conrail". Retrieved 4 April 2019.
14. "Conrail in South Jersey". Conrail Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-07-14.
15. "DELCORA Facilities". DELCORA. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
16. "Reworld Delaware Valley". www.reworldwaste.com. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
17. PCDFC: GWSI Warehousing
18. "Engineering & Manufacturing". www.careersatkc.com.
19. "Message to Tom Wolf: $6 Million for a Gas Plant on the Delaware, But You Don't Want Us to Frack?". Natural Gas Now. 6 September 2018.
20. "About Us - Chester Water Authority - The Official Website of The Chester Water Authority". www.chesterwater.com.
21. "Penn Terminals - Facilities". www.pennterminals.com.
22. "North Atlantic Marine Terminal (Penn Terminals) - Eddystone, PA".
23. "Economy League - Study explores potential of Delaware river ports". Economy League of Greater Philadelphia. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
24. "Penn Terminals". Retrieved 10 April 2019.
25. "Penn Terminals". World Port Source. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
26. "Crowley and Penn Terminals Sign Multi-year Stevedoring and Terminal Services Agreement for Puerto Rico – North Atlantic Service". 20 March 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
27. Labrut, Michele. "Crowley and Penn Terminals sign multi-year services agreement". www.seatrade-maritime.com. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
28. "The important port we serve" (PDF). sciphiladelphia.org. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
29. "Ship Car To Or From Port Of Chester". www.a1autotransport.com. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
30. "Exelon". www.exeloncorp.com. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
31. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. "The Wharf at Rivertown". depgreenport.state.pa.us. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
32. "Delaware County Approves Funding for MLS Stadium". Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. Retrieved October 24, 2007.