The Jacksonville Port Authority learned Wednesday of an additional $7.8 million in funding for projects being conducted in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
An appropriations act signed into law by President Barack Obama on Dec. 23 provided total fiscal year 2012 appropriations for the Army Civil Works program of $5.002 billion.
The accompanying Statement of Managers report designated $4.495 billion of that total for individual programs, projects and activities.
The Army Corps was to allocate the remaining $507 million, designated as additional funding for ongoing work, to individual programs, projects and activities, generally in accordance with criteria provided in the Statement of Managers.
After Obama signed the bill into law, the Corps spent the next 45 days developing the work plan to address the funding requests from across the country and present the plan to legislative committees.
Of the $507 million, the Jacksonville Port Authority will receive about $21 million for investigation (Mile Point $650,000), construction (Duval County $100,000 and Jacksonville Harbor $12 million) and operating and maintenance (Jacksonville Harbor $8.48 million) projects.
The port received a substantial bump in funding for the Mile Point project, changing from $48,000 originally to $650,000.
The construction appropriation almost doubled for the Jacksonville Harbor from its original budget of $6.86 million to $12 million. The operations and management budget received a $2.1 million nudge, and will be used for ongoing dredging to maintain the channel depth of 40 feet.
The main Civil Works mission areas for the Corps are commercial navigation, flood and storm damage reduction, and aquatic ecosystem restoration, as well as hydropower.
The Civil Works program additionally contributes to the protection of the nation’s waters and wetlands; the restoration of certain sites contaminated as a result of the nation’s early atomic weapons development program; and emergency preparedness and training to respond to natural disasters.
Obama signed the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2012, Division B of Public Law 112-74, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012.
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