The Port of Virginia and the US Army Corps of Engineers on May 23 signed the agreement committing the federal government to begin its financial investment in the construction effort to widen and deepen the commercial shipping channels and Norfolk Harbor.
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With a group of federal and state officials in attendance, Virginia Port Authority CEO Stephen A. Edwards and Col. Brian P. Hallberg, the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Norfolk District commander, signed the Project Partnership Agreement.
The document formally commits the port and the Army Corps to collaborate to deliver the Norfolk Harbor widening and deepening project. Further, it allows the Army Corps to use federal funding to award its first construction contract on the project.
The commercial shipping channels from the Atlantic Ocean and into the harbor are being deepened to least 55-feet and made wide enough to safely accommodate two-way traffic of ultra-large container ships.
These features put the port ahead of its East Coast peers and in a unique position to attract more cargo and increase efficiency at its terminals.
Virginia Port Authority CEO, Edwards said the biggest ships afloat will be able safely sail to-and-from the port fully-laden with containers. And, he said, the wider channels and two-way ship traffic means greater use of the port’s vessel berths.
The final installment of the federal investment, $72 million, was included the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The federal government and the port agreed to a 50-50 cost share of the project at its outset in 2015 when the Army Corps began evaluating the economic value of a deeper and wider Norfolk Harbor and commercial shipping channel.
The dredge work began in December 2019, nearly two-and-a-half years ahead of schedule.
While the project will help drive the port’s cargo volumes, the dredge work contains an important and useful byproduct: dredge material that will benefit regional beaches. ■
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