A major dredge that will deepen the
St. Johns River scooped up $14.8 million from the federal government’s stimulus
package, giving the Jacksonville Port Authority a financial boost in its quest
to attract ships with heavier cargo loads.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday also announced stimulus money will
go toward dredging the Intracoastal Waterway in the Palm Valley area of St.
Johns County and doing a study of shoreline protection in St. Johns County.
The projects will be funded through the $787 billion package that President
Obama signed into law Feb. 17. The Army Corps of Engineers received $4.6 billion
from that legislation and has been reviewing what projects would get funded.
The money for Jacksonville’s port will deepen the ship channel along a 5.3 mile
stretch up to the Talleyrand terminal. The depth will be 40 feet after the
project is completed, according to the Corps. It will match the depth of 14.7
miles of channel from the mouth of the ocean.
The Jacksonville Port Authority had been prepared to pay the bulk of the
estimated $31 million cost so deepening would start this year on the 5.3 mile
section. The stimulus money means JaxPort won’t have to wait years for the
federal government to reimburse the Port Authority, thereby giving JaxPort the
ability to use that money for other purposes such as equipment and dock
maintenance, Executive Director Rick Ferrin said.
Ferrin said he was confident the federal government “would look at this and say
this is a good use of the money, a logical use of the money.”
U.S. Reps. Corrine Brown and Ander Crenshaw of Jacksonville, along with Rep.
Cliff Stearns of Ocala, all lobbied the Corps to include the deepening on the
project list.
Also making the Corps’ cut was about $1.2 million for an ongoing study of
deepening the channel to as much as 50 feet, plus $150,000 for a study of an
area known as Mile Point where cross currents restrict the passage of cargo
ships based on tidal conditions.
Other Northeast Florida projects set to get stimulus money from the Corps are
dredging a segment of the Intracoastal Waterway in the Palm Valley area of St.
Johns County for about $4.2 million and doing a shore protection study in St.
Johns County for $452,000.
The Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Valley has not been dredged in many years. The
work will restore it to its previous depth, according to the Corps.
The Corps also allocated about $1.7 million for maintenance dredging of the
harbor in Fernandina Beach.
Webmaster: webmaster@iric.com