Posted on July 25, 2017
By Megan Bell, WJHG
Construction has begun to expand Port Panama City’s East Terminal, located on a piece of land that was formerly owned by the WestRock Paper Mill.
“This is the most important things we’ve done as port authority in probably 50 years,” Port Panama City Executive Director, Wayne Stubbs said.
However, the project comes with a hefty price tag.
“It’s over $30 million from the port itself. We do have good support from the state. We’ve had over $16 million made available for this project through the state DOT [Department of Transportation]. We’ve borrowed money, we’ve borrowed over $12 million for this project, but to be honest, we’re still looking for a little help because this is a big step for a pretty small port,” Stubbs said.
The expansion will include an updated warehouse, a new rail yard and will double the port’s cargo space.
“The ports had a very good growth for a long period of time now. Over 15 years we’ve been growing at an average pace of eight percent a year, on average. So, we could look down the road just a few years and see that we’re just about out of space,” said Stubbs.
The construction will be done in multiple phases.
“The warehouse is built in two phases, so we can always have space for the ongoing activity there, and then after that we have other phases, which is, we hope to extend the berth over there, we hope to add more warehouse space eventually,” Stubbs said.
Dredging is also planned, to deepen the channel. Construction on the first phase will be done by the end of 2018. Plans for the following phases are still in the works.
The growth is expected to spark an increase in jobs.
Source: WJHG
