Posted on July 20, 2017
By Kelly Grosfield, myPANHANDLE
Members of Florida’s Congressional Delegation say plans to deepen the Harbor at Port Panama City are “shovel ready”, but they say the Army Corp of Engineers in not funding the project.
A deeper port can accommodate larger ships and that means more money and jobs. Senator Bill Nelson and Representative Neal Dunn are supporting the project, but it’s not included in the Corps’ 2017 work plan. Nelson and Dunn have sent a letter to the Corps in hopes of getting additional funding for the project.
The $5.5 million dollar project to deepen the Panama City Harbor will allow the port to accept larger ships and bring hundreds of jobs to the area. Funding has brought this project to a standstill but government officials and the port authority are working to expedite the start of the dredging any way they can.
“The Port Authority has contacted the Corps and indicated that we would front the money for the engineering work if it can go forward so that we can be further along when we do get in the budget towards construction” said Panama City Port Authority Director, Wayne Stubbs.
The dredging would expand the east channel from 32 to 36 feet deep over a length of slightly less than 2 miles. Dredging is necessary in order to accommodate larger ships and promote more business in the port.
“All ports need to be dredged from time to time, but importantly…the Panama Canal was just widened. We have a new Panama Canal that’s parallel with the old Panama Canal and it accepts larger ships with deeper draft and if we can accept those larger ships, it’s a big deal to our port” said Representative Neal Dunn.
The dredging is just a piece of the larger project for expanding the Panama City Port, but an essential improvement.
“So the difference between 36 and 32 doesn’t sound like a lot, but in the shipping world, it’s almost twice as large as a ship” Stubbs said.
This project probably won’t make the corps’ 2017 budget, but there are hopes for it’s inclusion in the 2018 budget. The entire dredging project will take about three to four months.
Source: myPANHANDLE
