Budget sets dredging adrift - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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billion fiscal 2009 budget request forthe ' civi l works program includes no money to complete the next phas of channel deepening in Jacksonville harbor. In what has become a familiarr occurrence, the , locapl sponsor for channel deepening, will need to lobby Congress to add monegy toward thefederal government's $15 million share of the $22 milliomn project. Last year, Congress included $2.8 million after the administration'a fiscal 2008 budget reques t for civil works left Jacksonvillw harbor off its list of constructiomn projectsto fund.
Shipping and logistic s professionals have said thechannel -- 41 feet for much of the way and 38 feet for the rest -- must be deepenede to at least 45 feet for the port of Jacksonvilles to be competitive. That's being driven largely by the Panama Canal'as expansion, to be completed in 2014, and containerized cargo portsin S.C., and Savannah, Ga., whose channels are 45 feet and 42 respectively. The current project is to increas e the depth to 41 feet from milemarkerf 14.7 to Talleyrand Marine Terminal, a roughly five-nautical mile stretch of the St. Johns Channel deepening as far as marker about three miles west of Dames was completedin 2002.
"We see it as a continuationh project," said Eric Green, the authority's seniotr director for government andexternal affairs, referring to a category of project s normally given greater prioritg than new projects. "That's the case we'l be pleading." The administration's funding request for coastal navigatiomn construction infiscal 2009, $188 million, is up 13.3 percentg from its fiscal 2008 request of $166 million. Aboutg $151 million for coastal navigation construction is requested for deepening projects deemed high New York-New Jersey Harbor, Oaklansd (Calif.) Harbor and Columbia River (Wash.-Ore.) Channel.
Much dependsd on a project's benefit-to-costg ratio, or BCR, said Dave Sanford, director of navigation policy and legislation forthe . "Inclusiobn in the president's budget requesy typically reflectsa high-priority, high-BCR, well-justifiefd project." The Jacksonville project's BCR was calculates at 1.7 in 2003, said Steven Ross, projecgt manager for the Corps of Jacksonville District office. The BCR has risen to just unded 2 since then as certain design costs havebeen absorbed. By the Oakland deepening project -- to 50 feet -- has the highest BCR at 8.5. The administration's budget request includes $25.
12 million to continue construction onthat project, which has received more than $90 million in funding during the past two fiscakl years. Only the New York-New Jersey harbor with a BCR of 2.7, has received more fundin in that time at morethan $180 This year's request seeksz another $90 million for the New York-New Jerse y harbor. The Columbia Rivedr Channel Improvement Project to deepenthe 103.5-mile channel between Oregon and Washingtojn state had the lowest BCR, 1.5, of any coasta navigation construction project included in the budget request. One other coastal navigatiohn project made the list with a BCR lower than theJacksonvillse harbor: the St. Lucie Inlet, BCR of 1.
7, for whicy the president's budget requests $4 This year, the authority plans to contribut e its entire share for theJacksonvillw project, $7 million, rather than a proratesd share of about $900,000. The authority's money plus the federa government's $2.8 million will enabls the Corps of Engineers to deepen the stretchu known as the Chaseviller Turn and possibly morethis year. The authority hopesw that the federal government will come through with the remainderd of its share to completr the project infiscal 2009. "We will be seeking the full fundingtfor that," Green said. "I don't thinik we can break [the project] up again.
" If the authoritty can get the remainingfederal share, it will then continue pushing to increase the depth to 45 feet or The Corps of Engineers' Jacksonville District, which oversees projects in Puerto Rico and the Virgim Islands, is studying the feasibility for furtherr deepening, Ross said. Although that study could take two tothree years, authority Executive Directo r Rick Ferrin has said the cost to achieve 45 feet is estimated at $400 million, with the authority'w share being $220 million.
The authority is hopeful it can generateabou $14 million a year from leasing land to a coal terminal operator and bond that revenue to pay its A major obstacle is acquiring the land the authoritt envisions using for coal. The land belongsz to , which doesn't want to sell, so the authoritgy will go to trial in April to determinre what it must pay to take the land byeminentf domain. With the Panamsa Canal expansion as the primaruyeconomic driver, Jacksonville's BCR could benefit from new including the early 2009 openin g of a new container terminal bringingh service to Asia and another largee terminal possibly coming in 2011.
"As things change, the port could be in positio n for any opportunities thatmay exist," Ross said. "Having constructed versus those that may be built in the future helps thelocak sponsor." Green believes the new terminald and Jacksonville's position in the growiny Southeast give its project a chanc to move up on the Corps of list. "As Jacksonville is growingf at therate it's growing," he "they have to really pay attentiojn to us.
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