Posted on February 15, 2018
By Joseph Bonney, JOC.com
Channel-deepening projects at Savannah and Corpus Christi are among several port navigation projects included in the Trump administration’s proposed $4.785 billion civil works budget for the US Army Corps of Engineers.
The administration budget request for the corps is a starting point for appropriations that will be shaped by the US Congress. The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) has listed $66 billion worth of projects it says require federal funding.
“We are pleased the White House has made rebuilding American infrastructure a priority this year, and we look forward to working with members of Congress as they craft a final legislative package that includes a commitment to US ports and waterways,” AAPA President Kurt Nagle said.
The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, a $973 million project to deepen the 42-foot Savannah River channel to 47 feet by 2021, would receive $49 million for continued work under the proposed corps budget. Work on the project is expected to reach the midway point in March.
Georgia’s proposed fiscal year 2019 budget would add $35 million to the $266 million the state already has provided for the deepening. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal called the project “the single most important infrastructure project not only for Georgia, but for the Southeast as a whole.”
The Savannah dredging is designed to help the port handle larger post-Panamax container ships. Savannah ranks second to New York-New Jersey in container volume among US East Coast ports, with 3.2 million TEU of laden containers, a 9.4 percent increase from 2016, according to PIERS, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS Markit.
The Port of Corpus Christi, Texas, was recommended for $13 million in fiscal 2019 funding for a navigation study that is part of a project to deepen the port’s 47-foot channel to 52 feet and to widen it to accommodate larger tankers and bulk carriers. The port had requested $60 million during fiscal 2019.
“The channel project is not just a deepening but is a widening, so it will allow two-way traffic with barge shelves,” said Sean Strawbridge, the port’s executive director. “It’s about increasing the fluidity and optimizing the resources that are there by having better traffic flows, whether it’s project cargo or liquid bulk or (bulk) agriculture.”
The proposed fiscal 2019 corps budget includes $1.93 billion for the study, design, construction, and maintenance of inland and coastal navigation projects. Many of these are for inland waterways, including completion of the long-delayed Olmsted Locks and Dams, which will replace delay-prone locks and dams on the Ohio River between Illinois and Kentucky.
The proposed budget includes funding for 24 studies comprising 10 navigation projects, nine dealing with flood control, and five for ecosystem restoration. The 10 navigation feasibility studies include Corpus Christi, the Houston Ship Channel, Norfolk harbor in Virginia, the Matagorda Ship Channel in Texas, the Buffalo and Cleveland harbors on the Great Lakes, and the Black Warrior and Tombigbee rivers and Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Alabama, and Gulf Intracoastal/Brazos River floodgates and Colorado River Lock in Texas.
Source: JOC.com
