WASHINGTON — A key federal agency on Monday announced plans to set aside a record amount of funding for the Savannah harbor deepening project following an intense lobbying campaign by the state and its allies. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it plans to spend nearly $35 million on the roughly $1 billion project in its 2018 budget work plan. That’s in addition to the $50 million Congress had carved out for Savannah in its March government spending package, on its own a h

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is pitching in to help finance the Port of Corpus Christi's long-pursued plan to deepen and widen its ship channel. The Army Corps of Engineers' Work Plan for 2018, released Monday, included nearly $23 million in its navigation construction budget that is to be applied to the Corpus Christi Channel Improvement Project. Port officials said the funds will pay for the second of six contracts on the project, and will extend construction from the e

Widening and deepening our ship channel is a matter of international strategic geopolitical and economic importance. U.S. energy production and export, if enabled fully by projects such as this, can do one of two important things: Stop the world's energy superpowers from using their supplies to coerce the have-nots, or, failing that, make sure we're the ones doing the coercing. Using energy to help less-developed countries develop is more than a diplomatic and economic missio

Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton is providing important advocacy for the Port of Corpus Christi's overdue ship channel widening and deepening project. Editorial Board, Corpus Christi Caller-Times (LINK TO VIDEO REGARDING ARTICLE) We weren't, as the cliche goes, looking a gift horse in the mouth. Rather, we were making sure that the gift horse was — to mix metaphors — a bird in the hand, not two in the bush. We are thrilled and relieved the port isn't totally on its own

The Panama Canal Authority has added an additional daily reservation slot to its Neopanamax locks in order to further increase the capacity of the waterway at the demand of shippers. The one additional booking slot, which is effective immediately, brings the total available booking slots to eight daily. “The decision to offer additional capacity to shippers was made as a part of the Canal’s routine careful planning and analysis to meet the increased demand at the interoceanic

A $580-million proposed expansion of the Port of Wilmington involving a lease arrangement with a company based in the United Arab Emirates has won unanimous support from members of the General Assembly's Bond Bill committee. The vote Thursday came two weeks after the Diamond State Port Corporation examined the deal as hundreds of union members looked on. At that hearing, the CEO of Gulftainer addressed concerns about security and safety. Governor John Carney in a statement th

This week’s groundbreaking for the Mason Megarail project at the Georgia Ports Authority was indeed momentous for port employees and importers who want to get their products faster to consumers in the Midwest. Closer to home, it’s a huge deal for anyone who drives anywhere near the port on a given day or on any of the adjacent interstate highways leaving Savannah. A growing number of twenty-foot equivalent containers will leave the port by rail, not trucks. The project will d

At the 50th annual Georgia Foreign Trade Conference Monday, GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch reviewed the strategic plan for Georgia's ports that will allow for 10 million twenty-foot equivalent container units, 1 million rail lifts, and more than 1 million auto and machinery units per year. "Georgia is home to both the single largest container and roll-on/roll-off facilities in North America," Lynch said. "Our goal is to maximize capacity, create jobs and reduce impact on

A higher gas tax and new fees for alternative-fuel vehicles are among the ways America can pay for a major overhaul of its outdated infrastructure — and create jobs in the process, says a bipartisan group that includes U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty. “This will put people to work, and everybody knows we need to do it,” said Esty, a three-term Democrat who co-chairs the U.S. House Problems Solvers Caucus Infrastructure Working Group. “We think there is narrow window of a couple mont

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is expanding its use of big data to offer transportation analytics to city and regional planners across the commonwealth. Virginia officials announced the commitment on Friday as part of a statewide effort that began in 2016 to analyze data collected from mobile devices, commercial trucks with GPS, connected vehicles and other traffic monitoring sources to provide the state with real-world travel pattern information. After one