The long anticipated agreement was inked between US Army Corp of Engineers, GPA and Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) for the dredging of the channel to the Port of Savannah. Dredge bids are expected to be signed by end of the month. On October 8th, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) formally announced that the long anticipated agreement between the US Army Corp of Engineers, GPA and Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) for the dredging of the Savannah River channel from the Port of Savannah to the sea was inked. The signing was “imminent” for a couple of months, and the agreement in hand represents a major step forward for the Port of Savannah.   The PPA (Project Partnership Agreement) now allows the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project to begin and there is a lot banking on port development keeping pace with the marketplace. It has been a long time in coming. Curtis Foltz, GPA executive director,  in a phone interview conducted shortly after the announcement, said, “It’s been a fifteen year long effort,” to put the dredging in place and get the expansion kick started. After fifteen years it is easy to understand that Foltz and the rest of the State of Georgia are in a hurry to get going. Foltz said the Corp plans to make the awards for the dredging of the entrance to the channel by the end of the month.  The dredging project will cost approximately $706 million including construction and environmental mitigation costs. As a part of this cost-sharing agreement, the Corps will be able to use the 40% share of Georgia state funds to begin construction while it awaits congressional appropriations for the remaining 60% of federal funding. Georgia has already set aside $266 million (the total state share for the project) to get the project rolling.  The initial efforts will be focused on the entrance to the channel (10 miles) and with environmental mitigation work. As Foltz explained, the work at the entrance to the channel will have the least immediate impact on ship traffic while the environmental mitigation effort is necessary before any other work can begin. There is a lot at stake for the GPA with this dredging project. Savannah just passed the 3-million teu mark, and Foltz wants the port to look forward to 4-million teus and beyond. He said that the idea of passing New York/New Jersey as the biggest port on the East Coast might have looked impossible a few years ago but shifts in vessel rotations (Panama and Suez canals) and demographics could make it possible, maybe not in this decade but the next. With the port growing at a double digit clip (since July, the port has handled 891,408 teus, an increase of 102,122 teus), the need for dredging is evident to maintain the pace. The various dredging projects will deepen the harbor from 42 feet to 47 feet at low tide. With a twice-daily tidal swing of 7 feet, this will make the river 54 feet deep at the high tides. The Army Corps of Engineers estimates the harbor deepening project will bring $174 million in annual net benefits to the U.S. and for the Post-Panamax II vessels, the extra five feet of depth will allow for an additional 3,600 cargo containers in each transit, or an increase of 78%.