by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The Jacksonville Port Authority announced Monday that it has reached an agreement with Hanjin Shipping Co. of South Korea to delay the time line to open a $300 million container terminal for the company from 2014 to 2016, when it also expects the shipping channel will have been dredged to a depth of 50 feet.
“After cooperating on a diligent review of our plans, we have come to the conclusion that it is in our mutual best interest to adjust the start date of this project,” said JPA Chair Dave Kulik.
“It is anticipated that the process of constructing the Hanjin Jacksonville terminal will begin 18 to 24 months from now, allowing for the completion of the expected deepening of the St. Johns River and the opening of the new Hanjin terminal to coincide,” he said.
The port is planning to pursue both projects because Hanjin plans to utilize 8,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) ships to meet the minimal annual guarantee of the 170,000 containers it agreed to bring through the port during the first year to make the 90-acre facility financially feasible.
But the largest ships coming into the TraPac Container Terminal at Dames Point are 6,100-6,300 TEUs, which are not fully loaded, because the 40-foot depth of the St. Johns River at the port will not allow it.
Gov. Rick Scott is scheduled to visit the TraPac terminal today for a tour, briefing and lunch. His schedule from the Governor’s Press Office shows he should arrive at 10:10 a.m. and leave at 1 p.m.
Port Executive Vice President Roy Schleicher said the 50-foot depth is necessary for the ships to access the Jacksonville port fully loaded. Hanjin has told the port it wants to make it an eastern U.S. hub.
This designation would mean the larger ships would either be arriving at the port fully loaded or leaving fully loaded, and would need the deeper channel.
The adjustment of the shipping channel would also accommodate the larger ships that are expected to start traveling through the Panama Canal after its expansion project is completed in 2014.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is predicting the possibility of Jacksonville’s shipping harbor reaching 50 feet by 2017, noting that the authorization and appropriation processes take time and a plan for the storage of the dredging material from the project needs to be developed.
“Dredging to (a) 50 foot (depth) will produce a tremendous amount of material being removed from the river,” said Steve Ross, Army Corps project manager for Duval County.
“It would generate about 30 million cubic yards of material. Then the issue would be where you would place all that material,” he said.
An average dump truck can haul 10 cubic yards of dredge material, which would require 3 million trucks to hold the material generated by deepening the harbor.
“We are looking at how we can take advantage of the process in place,” said David Kulik, chair of the port board of directors.
“The Army Corps of Engineers’ decisions are based on authorizations and appropriations from the government. We are looking at those processes to see if we can use the support that we have from legislators to expedite the timeline.”
Time estimates are over-inflated to ensure enough time is allowed for the decision-making and funding processes, and that is where the port can make up some time, Kulik explained.
“(The Port’s time line) is probably a year ahead of the schedule that is currently on the Army Corps of Engineers books,” said Kulik.
“The Army Corps of Engineers does the best they can, but they can’t control appropriations and authorizations from Congress. The Army Corps of Engineers, locally, has been very supportive of JaxPort.”
The Army Corps is willing to cooperate where it can.
“We will look at opportunities that parallel to reduce the time needed for the projects,” said Ross.
Dredging is one part of the port’s plan to deepen the harbor. The other part of the project would improve the flow of the St. Johns River at Mile Point, where Intracoastal Waterway and river currents collide and pose navigational hindrances during certain tidal conditions.
A draft report from the Army Corps of Engineers on how to fix Mile Point is expected in April.
Water issues aren’t the only problem for the time line of the projects. After conferring with the City’s Office of General Counsel, the port has decided to start over with the process of requests for proposals and qualifications to provide professional consultant and design services for construction of the Hanjin container terminal at Dames Point.
The new time line “is going to put us in the situation where the whole RFQ, RFP process that we went through over a year ago to identify a design firm to do design for the terminal is now going to become obsolete,” said port Chief Operating Officer Chris Kauffmann.
“It is our opinion along with (the Office of General Counsel) that we will have to officially go out and put a stop to the initiative of this RFQ/RFP process and wait out the time period until we, collectively, are ready to go forward with the development of this terminal.”
Halcrow Inc. was selected to provide the services in the last request process.
“We expect that the fine companies that were being considered in the last request, will be involved again,” said Kulik.
“To the companies involved, I apologize for the way this worked out, but we couldn’t avoid it,” he said.
As the construction of the terminal is delayed, the life of the current cruise ship terminal has been extended. The temporary cruise ship terminal is on property where the new Hanjin terminal will be located and will be able to stay until construction begins, but Kulik stated that a new location for the cruise ship terminal will be found before the time is up.
“We will have an answer on that soon,” said Kulik. “Cruise is still a priority that we need to get an answer for.”
356-2466