meanwhile the U.S Army Corps of Engineers is kicking off a major dredging project this week in the Shrewsbury and navasink rivers it's a 14-mile undertaking that'll use millions of federal dollars to make it happen once complete though proponents Say it'll make the waterways safer for boaters recreational and Commercial Fishers who are vital to New Jersey's economy Ted Goldberg reports from the Highlands Sailors on the Shrewsbury had a welcome sight this week a boat from the U.S Army Corps of Engineers dredging the waterways and making it easier for boaters to navigate we're making good progress and we'll be continuing that likely over the next several weeks and that and then that dredge will then move on to other work the reason that we did this project is because of so many boaters were complaining to us over the last couple years about shoaling and the inability to get in and out of the Shrewsbury and Davis sink Rivers one of those boaters is David Miller the channels have become over the years increasingly difficult to navigate due to their limited depth he's thrilled to see the start of a 26 million dollar project to dredge about 14 miles worth of water in the Shrewsbury and navisink rivers Miller says boats have been at risk of running aground and smashing into Shoals you get to high spots you get sand bars and everything like that and we've had people and there's a lot of debris in the water too now since Sandy the definitely areas that have showed and hasn't been dredging like this in 30 years so you can understand that there would be a lot of places where it's hard for the for the boaters to get in and out we've had floats come in we've had docks float to our place and just you know we've had to take the responsibility to take them out of the water and tear them apart and put them in the dumpster and have them hauled away we've had to pay for that Miller says that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Long Branch ice boat and Yacht Club thanks to an earmark in this year's federal budget Budget Boats sailing around the Two River communities will be less likely to suffer damages from underwater obstacles we've had come across the poles actually sticking out of the water that have embedded themselves in the ground we've had guys hit them shafts bent and that basically nothing serious you know we've had a couple you know Transmissions went on boats but we don't know that that was caused from hitting something but it's possible the dredging is broken down into three phases with phase one starting last Friday the sand that gets dug up in phases one and two will be mostly used for Beach replenishment projects nearby we are in it here with you we'll find good placement opportunities for this material will enrich our beaches and will ensure good healthy habitats in these aquatic environments the Army Corps of Engineers says phases one and two will dredge nearly a hundred thousand cubic yards of sand the remaining 50 000 cubic yards from phase three will be handled by a private contractor and stored off-site because it can't go on beaches up to navisink past the Oceanic Bridge and and further south up up the Shrewsbury past gunning Island the material becomes siltier and it's it's not useful to put on a beach because it's not compatible it's not sand so that material still has to be dredged it still has to go somewhere project manager Alex Gregory says that's standard operating procedure for dredging material that can't go on the beach phases two and three are scheduled to start in the fall or winter in Highlands I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news [Music]