Metro Jacksonville

From the JACKSONVILLE DAILY RECORD, the port, good news and bad news...

OCKLAWAHA

QuoteNo need for port to wait to grow
04/22/2011
by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer

There are problems with Jacksonville’s port that will take some time to fix.

Logistics leaders understand that, but a meeting Thursday revealed that growth can happen at the port while making those improvements.

“We are dealing with issues about losing cargo because we only have 40 feet of water eight hours of the day because of Mile Point,” said Dennis Kelly, regional vice president and general manager for TraPac Inc.

TraPac, which operates a container terminal at Dames Point, hosted the meeting of the Logistics Advisory Group.

“Mile Point and having an intermodal facility to serve the ships are two key issues for the ports,” he said.

The port authority is working to address both Mile Point and dredging the shipping lanes to a depth of 50 feet. That depth will accommodate the larger ships that will come through the Panama Canal in 2014 when its expansion project is completed.

While the port is hopeful Mile Point will be addressed in the next two years, harbor deepening could take a lot longer.

“Without congressional go-ahead, none of us can go forward with deepening our ports and that might stick for the next several years, given the state of our federal environment and budget,” said Jerry Mallot, Cornerstone president, drawing on his recent trip to Washington, D.C.

Cornerstone is the economic development partnership of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The new stance on “earmarks” in Congress could also affect the progress of deepening the harbor, according to George Gabel, chair of the Logistics Advisory Group and chair of the chamber’s international efforts.

“The (U.S.) House of Representatives has reacted so overboard on earmarks that they voted to say, ‘no earmarks,’” said Gabel, who also visited Washington, D.C., recently.

“What it means is nobody is going to get their dredging approved until the House of Representatives changes its rules, maybe after the next election,” he said.

A member of the research team from RS&H, a facilities and infrastructure consulting firm, agreed that these issues needed to be addressed, but there are others that can be addressed now to help the growth of the port.

The issues were discussed in the second phase of the “North Florida Freight, Logistics and Intermodal Plan.”

“Every port is looking at the same markets we are serving because they like our markets,” said Ronald Ratliff, executive vice president of RS&H. “You saw today that our biggest potential for growth is serving Central Florida, which is currently served more by South Atlantic and North Atlantic ports than us.”

He acknowledged that Mile Point was a critical project for the port, but said deepening of the channel could take 10-15 years to complete.

“What we want to talk about is while Savannah is chasing our markets, are we going to sit here and pray for deeper water or are we going to try to find out what we can do to grow the business we have today as we work toward deeper water,” said Ratliff.

Steve Hastings is president of Jacksonville-based Sea Star Line, one of the businesses that could grow.

“Imagine what it would be like if the bridges to Downtown were only open eight hours a day. People wouldn’t be able to run businesses that way, and it’s the same way for my business,” said Hastings, referring to Mile Point.

Shippers generally can navigate Mile Point during two four-hour windows each day.

Mile Point is where the Intracoastal Waterway meets the St. Johns River, causing navigational issues.

“Jacksonville has a great work force and it’s a great part of the country, but if I can’t get my boats here and have a safe place to work on them, I’m going to look somewhere else. You can’t run a business waiting on the tide,” he said.

The Logistics Advisory Group was created in 2009 to bring together stakeholders in Jacksonville’s logistics industry to give North Florida a stronger, focused voice for the development of the industry.

It met Thursday to hear the second phase of the “North Florida Freight, Logistics and Intermodal Plan” that was commissioned by the Jacksonville Port Authority, the City of Jacksonville, Cornerstone and the North Florida Regional Transportation Organization. Phase three will complete the plan and be discussed at the next meeting.

QuoteFrom the JACKSONVILLE DAILY RECORD, the port, good news and bad news...

Well at least they ALL know what the problem is, so fix the Mile Point issue so that you have traffic 24/7 and then tackle the next problem the dredging. How about some positive ACTION for a change in government?

Define please, your viewpoint of postive ACTION for a change in Government ?

I am sure he means we need to get away from republican ideas of ignoring the infrastructure.

Everyone bring a bucket and shovel, we'll meet at Mile Point after Easter Sunday Services and start digging!

THAT'S POSITIVE ACTION...

OCKLAWAHA

Who knows if Alvin Brown will be able to leverage his Washington contacts to get this project done or done faster. This is a great card Jacksonville can play right now .  Mr. Local Tea Party beholden, Union Beholden and GOB network Beholden Hogan just can't match. Probably the most important and urgent economically impacting project Jacksonville needs to focus on right now.  We need to get this right . Let's at least take our best shot at getting this done.

Agreed, and you might not see this again from me, but the port is more important then rail, however the two are inextractably married to each other.

OCKLAWAHA

Quote from: JeffreyS on April 24, 2011, 10:19:58 AM
Who knows if Alvin Brown will be able to leverage his Washington contacts to get this project done or done faster. This is a great card Jacksonville can play right now .  Mr. Local Tea Party beholden, Union Beholden and GOB network Beholden Hogan just can't match. Probably the most important and urgent economically impacting project Jacksonville needs to focus on right now.  We need to get this right . Let's at least take our best shot at getting this done.

Perhaps this is an area where Brown should be willing to go into a little more detail on can possibly set himself apart from Hogan?  To date, it still appears that neither candidate has spent enough time going into detail on how they plan to pull things off.  I mean, we all know Jaxport is important.  So what are you exactly planning to do to facilitate its growth that your opponent doesn't have the ability to do?

A belt railway following the JEA 500' right of way for the high tension lines from North Main at I-295, through an intermodal facility across the CSX above Dinsmore and hook into the CSX/NS and FEC (JOINT TRACK WITH NS) at  Pickettville. Direct service into a new JAXPORT INTERMODAL TERMINAL, PLUS CSX, NS, AND FEC BOWDEN YARD.
Come on boys, this baby would be profitable enough to offset much of the commuter rail operating expenses. Be bold!

OCKLAWAHA

Sounds great!  Now, who is going to convince JEA to allow this use within their right-of-way.  My understanding is that they don't even want bike trails under those high-tension lines.

Quote from: thelakelander on April 24, 2011, 01:51:42 PM

Quote from: JeffreyS on April 24, 2011, 10:19:58 AM
Who knows if Alvin Brown will be able to leverage his Washington contacts to get this project done or done faster. This is a great card Jacksonville can play right now .  Mr. Local Tea Party beholden, Union Beholden and GOB network Beholden Hogan just can't match. Probably the most important and urgent economically impacting project Jacksonville needs to focus on right now.  We need to get this right . Let's at least take our best shot at getting this done.

Perhaps this is an area where Brown should be willing to go into a little more detail on can possibly set himself apart from Hogan?  To date, it still appears that neither candidate has spent enough time going into detail on how they plan to pull things off.  I mean, we all know Jaxport is important.  So what are you exactly planning to do to facilitate its growth that your opponent doesn't have the ability to do?

Would be a great time to do this at the televised debate.

Quote from: Charles Hunter on April 24, 2011, 08:35:16 PM
Sounds great!  Now, who is going to convince JEA to allow this use within their right-of-way.  My understanding is that they don't even want bike trails under those high-tension lines.

Certainly we're way ahead of the game on the forum here, but if it were to be honestly investigated by one of the candidates, just recall to JEA how ALL of the high power transmission lines in almost all major cities once had electric railroads running under or close by them. The DART line in Dallas follows the high tension lines all over north Texas. There's a huge difference between at 12 year old kid on a bike trail... looking at those ladders, and a 42 year old railroad conductor inside a 300,000 pound cocoon. Besides the money is there to be made, it speaks the language of CHA-CHING for JPA, JEA, JAA AND JTA, not to mention The FREE TRADE ZONE, Westlake, Cecil, and Stone Mountain Industrial Parks.

OCKLAWAHA