by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
A top Jacksonville Port Authority executive told a community think tank Wednesday that the Mile Point navigational impediment could be partially fixed by early next year.
That would be one of several steps that the port and its supporters say are required for Jacksonville to compete in global trade and create thousands of jobs.
Mile Point is where the St. Johns River intersects with the Intracoastal Waterway, creating a hydraulic effect that limits the time that maritime interests say it’s safe to navigate to reach port terminals.
JPA Chief Operating Officer Chris Kauffmann said U.S. Rep. John Mica, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, arranged for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to implement repairs at Mile Point. Mica is a Florida Republican.
Kauffmann told a Jacksonville Community Council Inc. study committee that Mica arranged for the Corps to use annual operation and maintenance funds to remove half of a wall that was installed in the river at Mile Point “a century ago.”
Kauffman also said that the first phase could cost $3.5 million. Construction could start Oct. 1 and be completed in three months.
JCCI’s “Recession Recovery and Beyond” committee is meeting to determine how the seven-county Northeast Florida region can create durable jobs in the wake of the long economic downturn.
Kauffmann was one of three speakers Wednesday, along with retired U.S. Navy Capt. Aaron Bowman and Dr. Yank Coble, chair of the Healthcare and Bioscience Council of Northeast Florida and director of the Center for Global Health and Medical Diplomacy at the University of North Florida. They discussed jobs created by the Navy and the area’s medical and health care sector.
However, the port has been a dominant discussion in economic development circles.
For example, the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce chose the port as one of its major focuses this year and the First Coast Manufacturers Association has been calling for an additional local sales tax to help fund the port’s estimated $1.5 billion infrastructure needs.
Kauffmann said ships have a four-hour window twice a day, depending on tides, to navigate through Mile Point.
Correcting Mile Point is a start to what the port and its growing list of outspoken advocates say is necessary to position Jacksonville to attract the larger vessels, particularly from Asian shippers, that will travel through the expanded Panama Canal in a few years.
Those ships no longer would need to stop on the West Coast to unload and load cargo for distribution by truck and rail and instead could travel directly to the East Coast.
An even larger issue is deepening the St. Johns River channel to 50 feet, now maintained at 40 feet, to accommodate those ships.
Kauffmann said the port, which has three marine terminals along the St. Johns River, has a $19 billion economic impact on the area, including 65,000 direct, dependent and related jobs.
He told the JCCI committee that a deeper channel would allow the new TraPac Container Terminal at Dames Point and the planned Hanjin Shipping Co. Terminal to accommodate the larger ships.
TraPac is operating. Hanjin has delayed its construction in anticipation of the river deepening.
When both terminals are fully up and running, the additional ships and business would add jobs and economic growth, said Kauffmann.
“We could gain 75,000 more jobs at full capacity,” he said, and a $3 billion to $6 billion boost in economic impact.
“Without the deeper water to support post Panamax ships, we are losing out to the West Coast, Savannah and to some extent Charleston,” Kauffmann told the group.
“Everybody is understanding of this and support is what will make it a reality,” he said.
Kauffmann said the estimated dredging cost is $750 million, with the federal government to pay for two-thirds and the local share to be a third.
“We are working closely with state and local government” for the local share, he said. A visit this week by Gov. Rick Scott was a step in that direction.
Kauffman said 75,000 jobs “is going very far to support his 700,000 jobs in seven years,” he said, referring to Scott’s campaign pledge to create Florida employment. Scott said he would see what funds are available from federal sources.
Kauffmann said that the dredging at the Mayport Naval Station for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is already taken care of by the federal government, which leaves it up to the port and local government to determine how to deepen the remaining 11-12 miles to Dames Point.
Kauffmann said the Corps, which must wait on appropriations and authorizations, could complete the dredging in 2017, although the port wants to speed up that process. The Panama Canal expansion is scheduled for completion in 2014.
After the speakers concluded and left the room, the JCCI committee summarized its main points.
“We need to convince somebody else to come here and spend their money,” said a JCCI member.
“Would you pay a half-a-cent sales tax and raise our own money to dredge it?” asked study Chair Elaine Brown, a past City Council president.
“We have to find a way,” said the member.
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