by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
A possible $37 million fix at Mile Point, where the Intracoastal Waterway crosses the St. Johns River at an angle, will be presented to the public Monday.
It’s the next step toward resolving what the Jacksonville Port Authority and shippers have said for years has kept larger ships from full access to terminals.
The crosscurrents create navigational problems during several periods a day as high tide ebbs.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which drafted the $2 million study funded by the Corps and the JPA, will present findings from 5-7 p.m. Monday at the University of North Florida University Center.
In a meeting with reporters Thursday, U.S. Army Corps Project Manager Steve Ross explained the findings.
Of seven alternatives studied, the recommended plan shows a relocation and reconfiguration of the training wall installed at Mile Point about a century ago. The wall directs the current to avoid sediment buildup in the river.
The report shows the removal of 3,110 feet of the existing eastern training wall at the river and Intracoastal Waterway and construction of a new 2,050-foot wall. It also shows a new 4,250-foot western wall and a 53-acre wetland restoration disposal site for dredged material from the project.
“Removing and relocating the training wall was found to reduce the angle and magnitude of crosscurrents,” Ross said.
He said the dredge material would recreate Great Marsh Island at Chicopit Bay. He said depositing the dredge material there saves the project $9 million.
Ross said the recommended plan will allow vessels to pass through Mille Point at any time.
Now, ships with a deeper draft must wait for higher tides.
“It does affect the deeper draft ships,” said port spokeswoman Nancy Rubin.
As the shipping industry evolved into using larger ships, especially those developed to traverse the expanded Panama Canal in 2014, the port focused on fixing Mile Point so area terminals could serve those vessels.
Rubin said the TraPac container terminal shares that “if a ship cannot come in, that’s a deterrent.”
Ross said the Army Corps did a feasibility study in 1999 to deepen the channel in the St. Johns River, which is another much larger project also urged by the port and area leaders.
“There wasn’t an economic justification to fix Mile Point. Now with the fleet size, there is a justification,” Ross said.
The project could be completed in 2014 pending funding and permitting.
Ross said that after the study is vetted, it will be submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers district office in Atlanta which would forward it to headquarters.
Funding needs authorization by Congress, a move being lobbied by area officials and lawmakers, including port CEO Paul Anderson, Mayor Alvin Brown and Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce leaders.
Ross said the cost would be split 65 percent from federal sources and 35 percent from nonfederal sources, meaning the City, port, area and state must come up with at least $12 million.
“If you look at Paul’s travel, he’s relentless,” said Rubin. She said it is not “will” the area find the money, but “how.”
“He’s not leaving any stone unturned,” she said.
Rubin said a fix to Mile Point would create 3,000 to 4,000 jobs “right away.”
Another point, however, is the project’s role in the larger project of deepening the St. Johns River.
“If Mile Point isn’t authorized, then the deepening analysis is going to be a challenge,” Ross said.
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