The study on deepening Jacksonville’s harbor from 40 feet to 50 feet gained momentum when President Barack Obama recently announced its inclusion in his “We Can’t Wait” initiative to expedite the modernization of five East Coast ports.
How the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was going to complete the study in 14 fewer months than it had planned was explored Monday during the first of three conference calls to update the public and government stakeholders on the project’s process.
“Talk to us about the compressed schedule, particularly to the fact that the schedule is not going to be eliminating any of the key checks or processes as we go through this. I’m sure some people are concerned that something may get short-shifted and that’s not the case is it?” said Joe Miller, senior director of facilities and development for the Jacksonville Port Authority.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager Jason Harrah explained that the harbor deepening project has not changed, but its timeline has been shortened by 14 months.
“This project delivery team, under my direction, will complete all of those key milestones, complete all of that environmental and ecological modeling and engineering modeling that we were previously going to do under our old schedule,” said Harrah.
“The way that we are going to make up some of the time is to run a lot of the reviews parallel from headquarters and our division. The team will still be completing all those key milestones,” he said.
The current timeline requires the Corps to complete a draft report on deepening the harbor, in 1-foot increments, by April 2013.
The report will include the information the Corps team has been working on, which includes engineering modeling, cost estimates, benefit-to-cost ratio, environmental studies and any real estate concerns.
The final report is due December 2013.
It differs from the draft report in that it addresses public comments that can be submitted at public meetings or through the Corps’ website www.saj.usace.army.mil under the “popular pages” heading.
Congressional and Corps processes also require a series of technical reviews to ensure the report meets all checks and balances and that everything is in order before the report goes to Congress for appropriation and authorization, said Harrah.
The public comment period is between the draft report and the final report.
The final stage is completion of the chief’s report, which includes responses to any public and agency concerns, and it is scheduled to be finished in April 2014. This document is also sent to Congress for the authorization and appropriation process.
Once a depth is determined for the harbor, the Corps plans to hold public meetings to talk about the blasting involved in reaching that depth.
“There will be a blasting public meeting to discuss any impact the blasting will have to the harbor in the spring of 2013,” said Harrah.
“The blasting requirements are significantly different for a project that’s only 42-43 feet versus a project that is 50 feet, so I don’t want to hold a public meeting until I know what the recommended plan is going to be and what the depth is going to be,” he said.
The local sponsor of the project, JaxPort, has requested that the Corps look at section one, an area approximately from the mouth of the St. Johns River to mile marker 14 that is near the port’s cruise terminal at Dames Point Marine Terminal.
The stretch is currently at a depth of 40 feet, which doesn’t allow the bigger, fully loaded post-Panamax ships to call on area ports.
“Why do we want to go to 50 feet? As time progresses, as the population of the United States and other countries grow, the need for delivering more cargo faster is inevitable,” Harrah said.
“More cargo faster means bigger ships. With bigger ships we need deeper ports for those ships to get into. We know today that speed is the currency in today’s world market,” he said.
More cargo also means more jobs, one of the reasons Obama has made the ports such a priority, said Harrah.
“It’s a balancing act, but we are going to make sure that we balance the environment and we make the right judgments here as we move along on this project,” said Harrah.
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