Jacksonville's port joins deep-water club for Asian cargo
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jacksonville officially entered the era of deeper water for cargo ships as it became the third Southeast port to complete a mega-dredge so it can handle more cargo containers from fast-growing Asian shippers.
A contractor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dropped a clamshell into the St. Johns River on Monday and scooped a ceremonial final batch of silt for the deepening financed by $420 million from all levels of government.
“I was elated,” JaxPort CEO Eric Green said of the moment.
Southeast ports have been in a race to deepen their water for Asian-based cargo ships. Miami deepened its channel to 52 feet in 2015 and the port of Savannah, which is one of the busiest in the nation for Asian trade, went to 47 feet in March.
Charleston’s port is on track to complete a deepening to 52 feet for its harbor later this year.
In Jacksonville, the pursuit toward deeper water started in 2005 with a feasibility study and intensified around 2010 with the kick-off of an in-depth environmental impact study that resulted in Congress giving authorization in 2014 for the deepening. That opened the door for federal funding in phases.
The years of study and financial requests since 2010 spanned the administrations of three U.S. presidents, two Florida governors, three Jacksonville mayors and four JaxPort CEOs.
Green, wearing one of the event’s caps with “47” emblazoned on it for the new depth of the 47-foot deep river channel, joined JaxPort in 2005 in its government relations division, so he has been working since then on gaining support for the dredge in some form or fashion.
“Being a hometown boy, this is really special to me because a lot of the people who earn a living from what we do were people I grew up with from my neighborhoods, I went to school...