Port Everglades ideal for Panama Canal expansion: Shutts & Bowen's Brendan Aloysius Barry

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - July 7, 2015 - PRLog -- By Brendan Aloysius Barry,

Partner, Shutts & Bowen; Board Member, Port Everglades Association

Port Everglades is launching an exciting new era, and it was a privilege to join local leaders on Tuesday, July 7, at Port Everglades Cruise Terminal 18 with members of South Florida's congressional delegation, including Congresswomen Lois Frankel (FL-22) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23).

Tuesday’s "rollout event" by the Port Everglades Business Development Division focused on essential next steps necessary to commence the deepening and widening of Broward County's Port Everglades channels to accommodate the “post-Panamax” ships traveling through the widened Panama Canal starting in April 2016. It came just a week after the Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, signed the Chief’s Report for the Port Everglades navigation project. With the signing of the report, the corps certified that the navigation project is "environmentally sound and economically beneficial."

This is of enormous impact to businesses in and around the Port Everglades community, to which I belong as a board member of Port Everglades Association. It was therefore an honor to get a rare up-close view of the Panama Canal at the invitation of Jorge L. Quijano, the canal’s administrator and CEO. Our small delegation got an eye-opening tour of the canal’s new locks hosted by Manuel E. Benitez, Deputy Administrator of the canal, and Ricardo Diaz, Executive Vice President of Canal for Business Development.

There, we learned first-hand how the $5.2 billion expansion of the canal will directly benefit Broward County, from bringing more business to the area and creating more jobs to promoting programs that preserve and protect the environment around the expanded Port Everglades.

Because of its geographic location, Port Everglades is vital to the global supply chain. It is a choice destination for ships heading east through the Panama Canal or west from Europe, Africa and beyond. Because of our entrance channel is the shortest of any U.S. East Coast port, shippers save time and fuel costs. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Port Everglades project will accommodate existing and future vessel movements, resolve navigation restriction problems, and present opportunities for national economic development.

If there is any doubt that Port Everglades is an economic powerhouse for Broward County and all of South Florida, consider this:

·      Port Everglades is the No. 1 container port in Florida (No. 12 in U.S.) by volume, and is expected to continue as Florida's leading containerized cargo port. Non-containerized cargo such as steel, lumber, aggregate, cement and vehicles is forecast to reach nearly 3.3 million tons by 2033 -- triple the amount moved through Port Everglades today.

·      Port Everglades handled more than 112 million barrels of fuel in 2014 and is the exclusive source of fuel for 12 South Florida counties and local airports including jet fuel pipelines direct to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport.   Petroleum products, especially gasoline and jet fuel, are also anticipated to increase, with jet fuel replacing gasoline as the top petroleum commodity moving through the port.

·      Port Everglades is the No. 2 cruise port for multi-day passengers in the world.  The cruise business at Port Everglades is forecast to have 5.6 million passenger moves by 2033 compared with 4 million moves in 2014.  (A move is an industry term referring to embarkations and debarkations at the beginning and end of voyages, as well as during visit ships' ports of call.)

·      Port Everglades is the No. 1 U.S. gateway for trade with Latin America.

The proposed $374-million construction project — deepening and widening the main channel (bringing the operational depth to 48 feet) and the expansion of the turning basins and docks — is expected to create 4,700 construction jobs, 7,000 local permanent jobs and 135,000 jobs statewide, according to Port Everglades.

Environmental as well as economic issues are key to the project, too. Critical to extending the Southport turning basin is the Upland Mangrove Enhancement, which involves replacing an existing 8.7-acre mangrove conservation easement with a 16.5-acre upland conversion through planting approximately 70,000 new mangroves and wetland plants.  This massive environmental project is being handled by Broward County’s own “Alligator” Ron Bergeron.

An additional $35.6-million environmental mitigation plan includes creating five acres of artificial reef, relocating roughly 11,500 corals, out-planting 103,000 nursery-raised corals to existing reef enhancement areas and other mitigation and monitoring features. These statistics are from the Chief’s Report.

Port Everglades, while already vital to Panama, has planned improvements that will make it an even more desirable and therefore top Post-Panamax vessel destination. This is why there is no better time to consider doing business in and around Port Everglades.

Brendan Aloysius Barry, a partner in the Fort Lauderdale office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, is a board certified attorney representing businesses in and around Port Everglades and sits on the Board of Directors of Port Everglades Association. He can be reached at 954-847-3884 or bbarry@shutts.com. Learn more at www.shutts.com.