Jacksonville’s Ferrin optimistic on dredging

JacksonvilleÆs Ferrin optimistic on dredging Port of Jacksonville Executive Director Rick Ferrin said he is optimistic the port's evolving status as an Asia trade gateway will prompt federal officials to re-evaluate the port's dredging needs and ultimately shave tens of millions of dollars off the local share of future dredging projects.
   This year work will begin on the second phase of a dredging project that will bring the ship channel depth to 41 feet all the way to the Talleyrand Terminal, the furthest inland of the port's three marine terminals on the St. Johns River.
   But with a full year of work remaining on what port officials call the '41-foot project,' Ferrin and his staff are looking ahead to the next round of dredging. The port plans to increase the depth of the ship channel to at least 45 feet by the 2014 — in time to make way for the post-Panamax container vessels that will be coming from Asia to the U.S. East Coast when the third set of locks for the Panama Canal are operational in 2015.
   Dredging projects take years to approve. The initial application work on the 41-foot project started in 1992, and actual dredging at the mouth of the river did not begin until 2002.
   The approval process has been streamlined at the federal level, yet dredging projects still need to be planned years in advance.
   The initial federal review of dredging to 45 feet has already been completed, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommending federal funding for dredging to 43 feet.
   Ferrin said the port is already planning on dredging to 45 feet at an estimated cost of $420 million.
   Because the federal government is still planning on funding dredging to 43 feet, the initially recommended federal share is $180 million.
   Ferrin noted that recommendation was made before the port signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea-based carrier Hanjin to move into a new terminal that would be the fifth major terminal at the port. The Mitsui O.S.K. Line Tra-Pac Terminal scheduled to open in less than a year will be the fourth. The Corps of Engineers also made the initial recommendation without taking into consideration the full impacts of the Panama Canal expansion.
   'I really believe the Hanjin terminal and the opening of the (Panama) canal in April 2015 will lead to changes from the preliminary recommendation,' Ferrin told Florida Caribbean Connection, American Shipper's sister publication. 'When they consider those new variables, I think they'll recommend dredging to 45 feet or 46 feet.'
   Ferrin estimated the final Corps of Engineers approval would be done by August 2009. Final engineering and design plans should be ready by about March 2010, allowing for congressional authorization in a Water Resources Development Act bill in the fall of 2010.
      Actual appropriations would come in the fall of 2011, and dredging would commence in 2012. The project should take two years to complete, meaning the channel would be at 45 feet by 2014. ' Jim Dow