JaxPort to shorten dredging area, move TraPac Terminal

In a revised project plan, the Jacksonville, Fla., port will shorten the length of its original dredging plan from 13 miles to 11 miles, prompting TraPac Terminal, which is now outside the new dredging distance, to move to the Blount Island Terminal.

   The Jacksonville Port Authority (JaxPort) in Northeast Florida and the MOL-operated TraPac Terminal last week welcomed the largest containership to ever call a Florida port, the 10,100-TEU MOL Bravo.
   Its arrival underscored the issues that the port has struggled with for years, namely channel depth and terminal capacity. Although the MOL Bravo ship was able move a significant amount of cargo to JaxPort terminals, it couldn’t operate at full capacity due to the 40-foot depth of the St. Johns River shipping channel.
   Furthermore, the current height of the Dames Point Bridge, at 174 feet above water, does not allow mega vessels to transit further inland to the TraPac Terminal.
   JaxPort has fought to deepen the channel for years and now has the authority to do so at 47 feet. The original 13-mile, 47 foot dredging project, would cost the port $684 million to complete.
   However, recent changes to the dredging plan would lower that cost by $200 million. JaxPort has announced the shortening of the dredging project to 11 miles, but this will also it too short to reach the TraPac terminal.
   Eight years after the terminal opened, TraPac has now agreed to move its operation to the port authority’s Blount Island Terminal on the east side of the Dames Point Bridge, where the 11-mile deepening would end, and allow for eventual mega vessels to bypass the issue of fitting under the span.
   Then there’s issue of funding.
   According to JaxPort, because the dredging is a “new start” project, it is eligible for up to 50 percent of funding from the federal government. As a result, “the port has received $21.5 million for the first contract which is 50 percent of the first contract cost,” the authority said in a statement to American Shipper.
   Furthermore, “the state of Florida is contributing a significant sum to the total construction cost with additional investments from JaxPort, our private tenants and potential city funding for later contracts,” the port said.
   When questioned about the option to raise the bridge rather than move the terminal, in a situation similar to the recent Bayonne Bridge project at the Port of New York and New Jersey, JaxPort said that it has a “previous, ongoing project to upgrade the ships’ berths at Blount Island which will help to prepare for the movement of TraPac and the continued success of SSA.”
   The deepening project will take an estimated five to six years, and currently there is no timeline for a TraPac move, according to the port.
   All in all, the “harbor deepening is JaxPort’s single greatest opportunity to grow this port and best serve our international container customers,” said JaxPort. “We have long been committed to keeping this important project moving forward expeditiously and successfully. With the help of our federal, state and local partners, we are ready to go.”