by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Halloween may be a few weeks away, but the Jacksonville Port Authority has been making the rounds in search of federal stimulus dollars and has received more treats than tricks.
Rick Ferrin, CEO of the Port Authority, discussed the latest funding it had received through federal stimulus dollars with the City Council’s Seaport-Airport Special Committee Tuesday. The Port has been successful in securing about $25 million to cover the Army Corps of Engineers’ portion of the Jacksonville harbor dredging project to deepen the harbor to 41 feet to allow for bigger ships to dock at area ports.
“We’ve actually been successful in getting $25 million in stimulus money for the federal government to stimulate themselves,” said Ferrin. “And it’s working, they are dredging.”
The St. Johns River harbor deepening project started in 2002 and has deepened about 14 miles of Jacksonville’s main shipping channel from the mouth of the river to Drummond Point to a depth of about 41 feet. The project was created to accommodate the water depth requirements of fully-loaded cargo vessels that utilize Jacksonville’s ports.
Along with the dredging funding, the Port has received $6.8 million from stimulus funds allocated by the U.S. Department of Commerce to repair the rail system at Blount Island, $3 million in stimulus money from the Department of Transportation for the Mayport Ferry, and about $930,000 from the Department of Homeland Security for security at the Port’s terminals.
“The funds for the ferry will be used for repairs to the ferry and docking mechanisms,” said Ferrin.
The report included some bad news along with the good.
“It’s nothing that the Port has done, it’s just a matter of time. (Army Corps of Engineers) discovered that their estimates were about 30 percent off (regarding the estimated volumes of dredging materials),” said Ferrin. “That added another $18 million to the price tag, which brings the price for the project up to about $63 million.”
An Army Corps of Engineers project manager pointed to weather and difficulties with equipment as the source of the additional work.
The Army Corps of Engineers performs multiple surveys to determine the volume of material that will be dredged from a project. The first survey was used to prepare plans for the project and another is done a week prior to the start of the project. It was this survey that alerted the Corps to a difference in the volumes.
“Over time, shoal material will move around the river and we noticed a build up of shoal material since we did our design,” said Steve Ross, project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Jacksonville Harbor Construction Dredging Phase III. “Heavy rainfalls will increase materials in the river, like the storms we experienced this hurricane season. We also experienced an error in our survey equipment.”
The project was originally expected to move a rough volume of 1.5 million yards, but now the project is estimated to remove about 2 million yards from that section of the river.
Ferrin requested the committee’s assistance in talking with the Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C., about where the funding would come from to cover that difference between the old and new estimates. The Port will have to come up with a “small” portion of the funding, but Ferrin was more worried about where the federal government would find its share.
“I would rather not have them go and raid their maintenance money for new work,” said Ferrin. “Because if they use the maintenance money for the new work, that means that if the channel starts silting up someplace else, they don’t have any money to dredge.”
Committee Chair Daniel Davis was trying to schedule that meeting along with a meeting regarding the Alenia project at Cecil Field Commerce Center.
“Just let us know when you would like us to be in Washington for the meeting,” said Davis.
The Seaport-Airport special committee is charged with helping the Port Authority and the Jacksonville Aviation Authority secure the resources needed to accommodate the city’s growing seaport business and the economic development opportunities at Cecil Field.
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