The federal government allocated billions to the Army Corps of Engineers to deepen Atlantic and Gulf coast harbors. The initiative reportedly began in 2017 as the Trump Administration pressed Congress to respond to a Panama Canal expansion designed to allow massive container ships passage. Now, the Army Corps of Engineers will access billions as ports from New England to Texas play catchup.
The size of cargo vessels more than doubled over the last 10 years and the world’s largest — the Ever Ace — carries 23,000 containers while spanning the length of four football fields. Logistics experts generally agree the lack of deep U.S. ports forces these mega-ships into a small window of ports. Although not necessarily the primary reason why more than 100 vessels idled off the coast of California during the peak of the supply chain bottleneck, relatively shallow harbors remain problematic.
“Part of the problem is the ships are double or triple the size of the ships we were seeing 10 or 15 years ago,” Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, reportedly said. “They take longer to unload. You need more trucks, more trains, more warehouses to put the cargo.”
More than $2.1 billion has been allocated for a harbor-deepening project at the Port of New York and New Jersey. Proponents of the massive dredging operations indicate the economic and supply chain benefits are worth the investment. The $834 million Wilmington Harbor Navigation Improvement Project in North Carolina has faced staunch opposition from environmental outfits. All told, 10 harbor projects are underway, and more are reportedly in the funding pipeline. These include the following.
- Port of New York and New Jersey Harbor Deepening ($2.1 billion).
- Charleston, South Carolina, Harbor Deepening Project ($565 million).
- Jacksonville, Florida, Harbor Deepening Project ($484 million).
- Port of Mobile, Alabama, deepening and widening ($365.3 million).
- Port of Virginia “Wider, Deeper, Safer” dredging project ($350 million).
- Boston, Massachusetts, Harbor Deepening ($306.2 million).
- Mississippi River Ship Channel Dredging Project ($238 million).
- Savannah Harbor Expansion Project ($507.2 million).
- Seattle Harbor Navigation Improvement Project ($61.2 million).
- Baltimore Harbor and Channels Project ($33 million).
The Port of Wilmington has been unable to handle large containers ships because shipping 26-mile channel in the Cape Fear River remains approximately 5 feet too shallow. From the docks to the open sea, the channel dips to 42 feet in places during low tide. To accommodate among the larger container vessels while fully loaded, dredging efforts would need to deepen it to at least 47 feet, according to officials. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to dredge other port harbors to depths upwards of 52 feet. Once these efforts are complete, larger containers vessels can be more evenly dispersed and increase East Coast truck driving opportunities.
Sources: news.yahoo.com, newsobserver.com, msn.com
As trailers got longer we were told the number of trailers on the highways would decrease. That didn’t happen and we now have the problem of negotiating roundabouts designed for cars with 53 foot long trailers because no one in a position to do the intelligent thing could foresee the problem. Now, with ever larger container ship crossing the oceans, ports were not maintained to keep up with that growth. Was this something else (like longer trailers) that happened overnight so no one in a position to do the intelligent thing could foresee the problem or is this just ANOTHER in a loooong and always growing list of government screwups?