History of Dredging Pipes on Little Tinicum Island

Barbara Kelley and Phil Girvin met with Ted Archer of Riverside Yacht Club who gave them a brief history of the pipe.  The pipe is a dredging pipe that was installed in 1957 / 1958 by American Dredging Co. for the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL).  The pipe runs to the NJ side of Little Tinicum Island (LTI); however, the Army Corp of Engineers issued the permit.

The bottom dredging barges would empty on the NJ side of LTI and the pipe would pick up the spoils pump / deposit them at the mainland through the pipe (some of it on the island)

Every Friday the pipe would have to be removed to open the channel.  If it was not removed the flow of water through the channel was disrupted.

Ted Archer found this information from the people that completed the work, but he did not give out their names.  He is trying to get something in writing that the pipe is still in the river and still goes from the NJ side of LTI to the mainland.

Barbara called Len Casterline at the Daily Times and Len confirmed that in the early 1970s or late 1960s Chester wanted to dredge the river to improve shipping, but the Philadelphia Legislature did not wanted any dredging done.  They didn’t want the ships stopping in Chester, they wanted them to continue on to Philadelphia.  When the Ford Motor Plan was located onLaGrange Avenuethey wanted the river dredged so they could ship the cars.  Again, the Philadelphia legislature opposed the work because they didn’t want the ships stopping before they reached Philadelphia.

Chester also wanted a tunnel built to NJ and that did not go through because of Philadelphia legislators.  This was before the Commodore Barry Bridge was built and thePhiladelphialegislature also opposed that.  Lou Cappella did not want the Chester Ferry to stop running because they were making money.

Barbara told Len about the pipe in the river and Phil gave him a brief history of what we believe happened.  American Dredging Company installed the pipe in the late 1950s with a permit they received from the Army Corp of Engineers.  The Schuylkill River was dredged by barges and they brought the spoils down to LTI and dumped them.  A pipe would pump the spoils to the PA side of LTI to Airport.  We believe this dredging took place between 1958 and 1962.  This was a free floating pipe and would have to be disconnected on weekend to allow boating traffic to access the channel.  After the dredging was complete it was decided that the pipe would be sunk so that it would not have to be disconnected every weekend.  It is still in place at the bottom of the river and on LTI.

Len said that back in the day, the back road behind the airport was all pig/hog farms and it was determined that spoils could be deposited on this road.