Jaxport - Ferrin touts port’s future despite economy

[kellypope]

Why the hell are they promoting nuclear warfare? I oppose this, hands down. No.

[BridgeTroll]

Huh?  What do you mean... "nuclear warfare"?

[kellypope]

Looks like we are talking about 50 feet, not 45, for dredging.  How tall will a 50 foot draft ship be?  If Panamax is only to 40 feet, why do we need a full 10 feet more for this? Or is it for some other class of traffic?  How do all these pieces fit together?

From Dredging News Online:

St Johns River dredging "could cost US$1 billion"

News - February 26, 2009

Dredging the St Johns River to allow larger cargo ships to use the expanding port facilities in Jacksonville will cost between US$500 million and US$1 billion, according to the head of Mitsui’s Jacksonville terminal.

Dennis Kelly, general manager of the new terminal, told Charlotte Business Journal that Jaxport will be in heavy competition with other East Coast ports to get federal funding for the dredging because the other ports also need deeper channels to handle the larger ships that will be using the Panama Canal, once the enlarging of the canal is complete in 2014.

“It’s going to be interesting to see who gets it [dredging funding], and when,” Kelly told a Tuesday lunch meeting of The Economic Roundtable of Jacksonville at Jacksonville University.

He said the river channel will need to be dredged to a depth of 50ft.

Kelly said the US Navy’s plans to base a nuclear aircraft carrier at Mayport will help Jacksonville compete for the dredging money, because the carrier will also need a deeper channel in the St Johns to access the Mayport base.

Nuclear-powered? Or nuclear weaponry-carrying? You know what. I've been awake for about 29 hours. Let this slide.

[Ocklawaha]

Why the hell are they promoting nuclear warfare? I oppose this, hands down. No.

WTF??

The fact that the carrier is nuclear doesn't mean that it has to have a single nuke weapon onboard. The nuke is simply a heat source to create steam to run the ship. This has no more to do with promotion of "nuclear warfare" then the local Army National Guard post.

I would guess the channel depth will change somewhat after they clear the Mayport basin. If not between the new container terminals and the mouth of the river, they'll want to make darn sure they have room to flood those ships if needed to clear that stupid bridge/power line log jam.

I looked to see records of rebuilt suspension bridges in the event we someday MUST go higher. I did find a couple, one in Cincinnati that was quite old. They came in and used the old deck as a work platform and hung a new deck on it and ABOVE the old platform. This was done without having to change the towers. In another case California, new towers were built which more or less cradled the old bridge but went higher, for a new one.

BTW, JAXPORT is number 19 in TEU's in the USA (latest numbers are for 2007). Savannah is number
4 on the chart.

North American RANK: (CONTAINER TRAFFIC)

LA -1.4%
Long Beach +.4%
NY NJ +4.1%
Savannah +20.6
Oakland -.1%
Vancouver +4.5%
Hampton Roads +4.0%
Seattle -.7%
Tacoma -6.9%
Houston +10.6%
Charleston -10.9%
San Juan -2.0%
Manzanillo +12.9%
Montreal +5.7%
Honolulu +1.0%
Port Everglades +9.8%
Miami -9.4%
Veracruz +8.1%
Jacksonville -7.6% (slipped one place from number 18)

The good news is "IF" we see any kind of recovery, the big dogs have officially moved their American East Coast HOME PORT to Jacksonville. The container wars are hot and everyone expects the Southeast to kick some butt. They are all in terror over Jacksonvilles Coup de grace. If the port gets the expected numbers it puts us about 100,000 containers ahead of SAVANNAH! Talk about a leaping port!

OCKLAWAHA

[stjr]

I suspect that the channel dredging may be more controversial than not.  The T-U has already run articles saying it could have a major environmental impact on the ecology of the river, especially its salinity.  This issue is now front and center after the hubbub about Orlando's withdrawal plans.  The dredging impact may be even more dramatic according to said articles.  JPA could be in for another fight to rival the cruise ship terminal.