A.G. Gancarski
For those interested in the long-delayed dredging of the St. Johns River to deepen the JAXPORT channel from 40 to 47 feet for bigger PANAMAX ships, some good news is on the way via $17.5M in the Army Corps of Engineers FY 2017 Work Plan.
Florida Congressmen Ted Yoho, Daniel Webster, John Rutherford and Al Lawson collaborated on a letter to OMB Head Mick Mulvaney last week making the case for new start funding for the JAXPORT dredging process.
In a statement, Rutherford enthused that “this funding is a great start to the needed dredging at JAXPORT.”
Yoho said JAXPORT was “vitally important,” via Twitter.
The legislators noted that the Department of Defense designated JAXPORT as “strategic,” and that the non-federal cost of the project — shared by the Jacksonville Port Authority and the State of Florida — of $371.4M exceeds the federal share of $312.8M.
Earlier this year, Gov. Rick Scott discussed his commitment to getting the dredge started.
“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that we have the state funding. I’ve already been talking to the federal government — the Trump administration about the federal funding. So as long as we have the local funding, which I think Lenny Curry is very supportive of that, I think we’re going to get a lot of good things done at JAXPORT,” Scott said.
Even as progress is being made on this front, there are questions as to how meaningful even a deepening to 47 feet would be for Jacksonville, as a race to the bottom is already happening in ports to our north.
The Norfolk Pilot covered this week plans to dredge to a 55-foot depth.
