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stay competitive, he said. “Savannah and
Charleston will be the winners,” he said.
Curtis Foltz, executive director of the
Georgia Ports Authority, said the states
have moved away from the political strife
that has hindered the Jasper project.
Beyond that, however, Foltz sees little need
or opportunity for Georgia to cozy up to its
northern neighbor. Los Angeles and Long
Beach, like Seattle and Tacoma in
Washington state, work because they function within the boundaries of their respective states, he said. A model like the Port
Authority of New York & New Jersey,
which is run by a bistate agency, would be
difficult to execute in the Southeast
because of Georgia’s diverse portfolio of
port assets, which includes three ports and
inland properties for development, he said.
The region and its shippers, BCOs, and
liners are “best served by independent
port authorities operating their respective
assets as an economic development extension of their state” augmented by joint
efforts to get Jasper up and running, Foltz
said. He contended that there’s little customer overlap between the ports.
HOW DEEP IS YOUR WATER?
One area where both ports are in the somewhat same figurative boat is water depth.
Each has faced daunting political, environmental, and bureaucratic obstacles to
deepening its channels and berths.
Savannah hopes to get to 47 feet by 2016 or
2017. Charleston today can handle vessels
with 48-foot drafts but only during periods
of high tides that last roughly two hours.
Liner companies spending fortunes to buy
and maintain big ships don’t want to wait
for high tide or be forced to enter and exit
a port at specific times, Newsome argues.
A 50-foot depth will allow for unrestricted access to Charleston. However,
that’s unlikely to happen before 2018, and
if forecasts by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers are accurate, closer to 2020.
The Corps is halfway through a feasibility
study to determine if the harbor should
be deepened at all. Currently, New York,
Baltimore, and Norfolk, Va., have 50-foot
depths; a fourth port, Miami, is expected
to reach that level by 2015.
South Carolina has taken what Newsome
calls the unprecedented step of allocating
$300 million in state money to fund
the entire cost of the dredging. State
taxpayers are already on the hook for
$180 million; the balance would be
spent only if federal funding to
finance the remaining $120 million
fails to come through. Newsome said
the move underscores the state’s com-
mitment to deeper water, but he
chafes at the idea of its citizens footing
the additional tab for a project that
has clearly shown regional and
national economic benefits.
How important water depth
becomes in a post-Panamax world
remains to be seen. The rule of
