Posted on June 8, 2021
Last week, the CMA CGM Marco Polo sailed into Hampton Roads. To the casual observer, it was another container ship stacked high with those familiar boxes strapped behind the region’s many tractor trailers.
To the port, the enormous vessel presented a reminder about the growing need to expand local shipping channels.
It was a record breaker among many reached in recent years: with a capacity to carry roughly 16,000 containers, the Marco Polo became the largest ship to stop at ports along the East Coast.
That’s why port officials were relieved to see President Joe Biden on Friday included a project to deepen and widen Virginia’s harbor in his proposed federal budget. The money will help the port stick to a timeline to dredge its channels by 2024.
The president’s budget includes $83.7 million in federal funds to help pay for Virginia’s channel expansion. The $350 million project will deepen the port’s channels to 56 feet and widen them to 1,400 feet in certain areas. The Atlantic Ocean Channel, where ships first enter Hampton Roads, will be dug down to 59 feet, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
“This is welcome news for the Commonwealth,” Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said in a statement. “By giving the green light on this critical designation, we can unlock much-needed federal funds to support this critical commercial and economic channel in Hampton Roads.”
Warner was among a delegation of Virginia lawmakers who wrote to Biden in March urging him to include the project.
The federal government each year picks one or two ports or states nationwide to greenlight such water navigation projects.The port in Houston was the last to get federal dollars for a port deepening project.
In Virginia, the port has been using state dollars to start digging the Thimble Shoal Channel. A dredging company is ahead of schedule and expects to be done with that section by this month, port officials have said.
In Hampton Roads, the Thimble Shoal Channel is the main artery leading in and out of the port. It is neither deep nor wide enough to allow for two-way ship traffic, meaning when ultra-large ships arrive or leave, others have to wait for them to pass.
Other ports on the East Coast are also working to deepen their channels to keep up with larger container ships.
