Port Miami signs dredge agreement

“The agreement is the final step prior to advertising for the construction contract and solidifies our partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that will manage the project. We are on schedule to complete the Deep Dredge at the same time the expanded Panama Canal opens,” said Bill Johnson, director, PortMiami.

The project will deepen the port’s existing channels to provide a draught of almost 16 metres (-50/52 feet) to prepare for the Panama Canal expansion, now scheduled for completion in early 2015. Deeper channels will provide ships with an economically efficient, reliable and safe navigational route into the port.

Johnson noted that PortMiami will be the only US Port south of Norfolk, Virginia with such depth at the time of the opening of the expanded Canal, which will allow the port to meet its goal to double its cargo traffic over the next decade.