JaxPort to seek 47-foot ship channel

[thelakelander]

Any idea of how we're going to come up with the extra $200 million needed to dredge?

The Jacksonville Port Authority officially set its sights Monday on a 47-foot ship channel after a consultant called that depth the “sweet spot” for getting shippers to pick Jacksonville and spin off thousands of new jobs.
The unanimous decision by its board, though, will greatly increase the authority’s share of the cost for dredging the ship channel, possibly by as much as $200 million.

full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-02-25/story/jaxport-seek-47-foot-ship-channel

[tufsu1]

maybe the private shippers will pay for it

[Cheshire Cat]

The money question is huge but so is the environmental one.  This is what the Riverkeeper FB page had to say today about this development:

"Not just that it is expensive to dredge the river, but it is expensive to try and mitigate for the severe environmental harm that deepening the river will inflict. "The cost of the deeper dredging project is unknown, but prior estimates for a deep dredge of the river have ranged up to $1 billion." Lets put money into creating jobs on the river, without all the harm."

[thelakelander]

There's opportunity to benefit economically by working with what we already have.  Eventually, we'll get there as we come to the conclusion that we're a second tier player in losing position, with no money to fund our wild post panamax dreams.

[Cheshire Cat]

A dose of reality regarding these issues would be a good thing.   Which is why we need the right person to fill the top job at the port.