The Jacksonville Business Journal reported yesterday that Mitsui estimates the final bill for the necessary channel dredging at JaxPort could reach $1 billion.  Dennis Kelly, general manager at the Mitsui Jacksonville terminal, said the St. Johns River dredging is necessary to accommodate the newer, larger container ships.  This need becomes even more critical in 2014 when the newly widened Panama Canal opens, allowing those larger ships to transit.  Although Jacksonville will compete with Savannah for the dredging funds, the new nuclear aircraft carrier base at Mayport will strengthen its argument.  

In an economy where we hear on a daily basis about hundreds of billions, or even trillion’s, of dollars being handed out by the government, it is easy to be lulled into thinking that a $1 billion dredging project is small.  This is still a huge undertaking for the Corps of Engineers and these funds won’t come without a significant struggle.  However, a 50′ channel depth seems to be the magic number and if you have it you have a significant competitive advantage.  When the big ships come there will only be a few mega-ports on the east coast that these ships will call on.  Jacksonville’s ability to obtain these funds will go a long way in helping to determine whether it can become one of these “winners”.