Bristol Borough to build its marina on the Delaware

A new marina will finally be built along the Delaware River in Bristol Borough, after it was announced Tuesday that the borough will receive a $1.5 million federal grant to cap off the funding needed for the $2.5 million project.

For nearly a decade, local residents and politicians have hoped to construct a marina in the river to complement the borough's waterfront park and trail, which are only a few hundred feet from the borough's main stretch of shops and restaurants. But officials had not been able to find ways to fully fund the project until this federal grant was awarded.

At a riverfront news conference on Tuesday, U.S. Rep Mike Fitzpatrick, (R., Bucks), and Bristol Borough Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe were eager to express their excitement.

"It's really hard to describe what this really means for this town," DiGuiseppe said.

Fitzpatrick said that he believed the marina would become "an anchor for our community."

The marina will have a 120-foot pedestrian pier, and two additional floating docks will be able to hold up to 25 boats, DiGiuseppe said. Larger ships will be able to dock there as well if the marina is not at capacity, he added.

It will not be a marina where boats will stay overnight; the emphasis is for boaters and fishers traveling along the Delaware to have the option to stop into Bristol for the day, he said.

DiGiuseppe hopes construction will begin in six months, and that the project will be completed several months after that.

"About a year from now you should be cutting a ribbon," he told the crowd gathered along the river.

The grant, a Boating Infrastructure Grant, came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fitzpatrick said that DiGuiseppe contacted his office last year to apply for the grant and that $1.5 million was the maximum amount awarded. Projects in several other states, including Maryland and Hawaii, also received funding.

The Bucks County Commissioners had previously pledged $480,000 to the project, with another $520,000 to be contributed if the federal grant came through.