Port Everglades? master plan outlines extensive changes

Port EvergladesÆ master plan outlines extensive changes As Port Everglades' detailed version of a 20-year 'vision plan' takes shape for final consideration by the Broward County commissioners, planners are honing an ambitious outline that could cost $2 billion and create changes that would significantly increase berthing space and develop on-port intermodal rail operations.
   The new port master plan is expected to go before the commissioners for final review within 60 days. It includes a proposed $408 million five-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP), plus more theoretical 'vision plans' that outline changes the port would have to make through 2016 and then through 2026 if county leaders see the need to develop port facilities that would meet the projected market demands.
   'This is not a development plan, but a roadmap,' said Richard Heidrich, vice president with DMJM Harris, the lead consultant preparing the master plan, at a public meeting on the plan Thursday night in Fort Lauderdale. 'It does not say what will be done, but offers a vision that answers the question: 'If you needed to meet the expected market demand, what would it take?' '
   The projected market demands are extensive for Port Everglades, which is a major container port, the third-busiest U.S. cruise port, the primary gateway for liquid petroleum products for South Florida, and a growing bulk port.
   Planners foresee the port handling 2.7 million TEUs of containerized cargo by 2026, up from just under 800,000 TEU in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2006. The demand would require berths and shipping channels that could handle the larger containerships that will be able to pass through the Panama Canal when expansion is completed in 2014.
   Planners also envision berthing and support needs for the ever-larger vessels in cruise shipping, the increasing demand for fuel barges as the population increases in the entire South Florida region, and sharply increased demand for imported bulk cement and crushed-rock aggregate needed by the road building and construction industries as domestic supplies decrease.
   The need for aggregate materials would justify development of a new bulk terminal, with a covered conveyor belt, a covered area near the waterfront to discharge aggregate, and a new rail spur where bulk material would be loaded directly onto trains, planners said.
   Heidrich noted the rail spur would dovetail development of a near-dock intermodal container transfer facility that would be needed as container volumes increase. There is an intermodal rail yard about one mile from the port that requires truck drayage to and from the waterfront.
   Funding projections call for a mix of sources. For example, the projection through 2016 calls for $477 million in master plan projects, $160 million for dredging, $20 million in general infrastructure costs, and $100 million for other capital improvements.
   Master plan projects would be funded by a mix of port revenues, funds from private sector port users that directly benefit from specific project, state and federal funds, and debt that would be paid down by future port revenues.