LONDON: Tired of waiting for Congress, states racing to deepen seaports before the opening of the enlarged Panama Canal next year are picking up the cost of what has traditionally been a federal duty.
Port Manatee, one of the ports that is planning further ahead, has not gone after state funds. Port Manatee officials expect the port will use federal money for a proposed deepening project that probably wouldn’t be finished until after 2020.
With funding for coastal navigation channels at its lowest in a decade, port directors worry that the federal government is abandoning construction and maintenance of U.S. waterways just as builders churn out a new generation of massive container vessels. The so-called post-Panamax class carries loads twice the size of current ships and demand ever-deeper harbors.
At least four other ports in Florida, Georgia and Texas have decided to foot the bill to deepen federal waterways, a total of almost half a billion dollars, rather than wait years for funds. To berth post-Panamax ships, ports typically need 50 feet of depth — there are only four on the East Coast.
Smaller facilities are looking for an edge to gain a bigger piece of the $4.6 trillion in economic activity generated at U.S. ports last year, a quarter of the gross domestic product.
As one of those smaller facilities, Port Manatee plans to deepen its channels and berthing facilities, though it may not keep pace with some of the larger ports in Florida. The port has maintained 40-foot draft depths throughout its facilities for decades. It has plans to increase that depth to 45 feet in coming years to accommodate larger, heavier cargo vessels expected to start passing through a rebuilt Panama Canal next year.
“Based on the initial assessment conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers, it was anticipated that the maximum benefit /cost ratio would be expected to maximize at around 45 feet,” said port spokeswoman Virginia Zimmerman.
In 2014, $100,000 was allocated to the Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville district to study deepening the federal channel and harbor area at Port Manatee. President Barack Obama placed a request for an additional $700,000 for the Port Manatee study in his 2016 civil works budget.
