Port Manatee prepares for container terminal

Port Manatee prepares for container terminal    Port Manatee this week continued its drive to complete its first container terminal by the end of the year.
   The Manatee County Port Authority decided at its Feb. 18 meeting to seek bids to dredge Florida port's Berth 12 to a depth of 41 feet. It also agreed to acquire a $4 million mobile container crane.
   The base bid for the dredging includes excavation and hydraulic dredging of almost 760,000 cubic yards of material and removal to an uplands spoil disposal site.
   The Florida Department of Transportation is supplying a grant to cover half the cost of the port's second mobile container crane, and stevedore Logistec USA will eventually pay for the remainder of the crane under a 15-year leaseback arrangement.
   Officials say they are well positioned to attract increased container volumes expected with the expansion of the Panama Canal at the end of 2014.

Port Manatee has already accomplished maintenance dredging, the construction of permanent features related to hydraulic dredging and dry mining within the base-bid footprint. The base bid for Berth 12 dredging is 760,000 cubic yards of material and 370,000 in the bid alternate.