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July

View Combined Map of East Coast Port Access Route Studies

The boundaries for four U.S. Coast Guard-led Port Access Route Study (PARS) areas along the East Coast are now presented in a single consolidated map on the Portal. In addition, this Port Access Route Study Areas layer includes the boundary for a new Northern New York Bight PARS that is currently subject to public comment.

Previously, the Portal housed individual layers for three PARS areas under study in the region: the New Jersey Seacoast/Delaware Bay approaches; the approaches to the Chesapeake Bay; and the North Carolina Seacoast, including the approaches to the Cape Fear River and Beaufort Inlet. Those individual maps have been retired.

Northern New York Bight PARS

NY container vessel

The Coast Guard is conducting the Northern New York Bight PARS to evaluate the adequacy of existing vessel routing measures and determine whether additional ones are necessary for the approaches to the Port of New York and New Jersey and international and domestic transit areas in the vicinity. The PARS will consider factors such as planned or potential offshore development, current port capabilities and anticipated improvements, increased vessel traffic, existing and potential anchorage areas, changing vessel traffic patterns, effects of weather and navigational difficulty.

Vessel routing measures, which include traffic separation schemes, two-way routes, recommended tracks, deep-water routes, precautionary areas and areas to be avoided, are implemented to reduce the risk of marine casualties. The recommendations of the study may subsequently be implemented through rulemakings or in accordance with international agreements.

The First Coast Guard District, Coast Guard Sector New York, and Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound are conducting this PARS. The area extends approximately 150 nautical miles seaward and covers approximately 25,000 square nautical miles, including the offshore area of New Jersey and New York used by private, commercial, and public vessels transiting to and from these ports. The study may take a year or more to complete.

Public comments and related material must be submitted to the Coast Guard by August 28, 2020. For more information on the PARS and instructions for submitting comments, view the study notice in the Federal Register.

More on Mid-Atlantic PARS

Portal users can click on the USCG Proposed Areas and Studies collection within the Maritime data theme to find this and other related maps developed in partnership with the Coast Guard. Click the links below to read the Federal Register notices for the other PARS in the Mid-Atlantic.

The Portal also hosted “How Tuesday” webinars with personnel from the Coast Guard’s Fifth District covering the Chesapeake Bay and New Jersey/Delaware Bay studies, which can be found here.

Lewes lighthouse

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