Posted on August 10, 2017
Senator Bill Nelson is continuing to push for federal funding to help expand Port Panama City.
He met with Port Authority members and stakeholders Tuesday morning to discuss a multi-million dollar project.
“This is a sleeping giant, not only for Bay County, but Northwest Florida,” Nelson said about the port’s potential. “Obviously, the military and tourism are the biggest economic drivers, but you add a major port with a lot of economic activity then you’ve diversified, and that’s for the betterment of everybody.”
Part of the project would deepen the main port facility about 6-feet deeper to accommodate larger ships. The other part of the plan is to dredge the Eastern channel from the jetties to the port facility at the paper mill to make it deeper.
Both Sen. Nelson and Congressman Neal Dunn are trying to get the Army Corps of Engineers behind the shovel ready project.
“Once they have that, the bigger ships or the ships heavily loaded can come in. There can be a lot more tonnage coming in, and that means a lot more jobs and a lot more economic activity,” Nelson said.
Port officials are hopeful the corp will include the funding in its 2018 budget, but they have proposed fronting some of the costs so they can begin dredging soon.
Source: myPANHANDLE
