Savannah Harbor Dredging Begins
The dredging project in the Savannah Harbor began on Monday. The Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency overseeing the harbor expansion, says that the project started on Tybee Island as crews on a 220-foot dredging barge worked about 5 miles offshore.
The deepening will allow larger, more efficient cargo ships to navigate the East Coast’s second busiest container harbor with greater ease, heavier cargoes and fewer tidal restraints.
Dredging will deepen the outer harbor, which runs 18.5 miles from Fort Pulaski to the Atlantic Ocean.
The project has been in the works for about 17 years now. Lawmakers have been pushing it because it will bring substantial economic benefits to the U.S., allowing larger and more heavily-loaded vessels to access the harbor.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the harbor deepening project will bring $174 million in annual net benefits and allow for an additional 3,600 cargo containers in each transit — an increase of 78 percent.
"With the expansion of the harbor deepening its going to allow those ships to come more frequently throughout the day and also not leave several containers or one hundred or two containers short of a full load," Colonel Marvin Griffin, District Engineer with the Corps said.
Politicians and community leaders gathered Monday near Fort Stewart to applaud the official beginning. The project will extend about 18 miles towards Georgia Port Authority's Garden City terminal.
The project, described by Gov. Nathan Deal as “vitally important for economic development and job creation,” will position our region to meet the demands of a global economy and shippers’ use of larger container ships.
The project will cost approximately $706 million, including construction and environmental costs. The federal government will cover 60 percent and the state will cover 40 percent of the funding. The estimated time frame for construction is about 5 years.
