New industrial developments at the Port of Mobile will result in the extension of the Mobile River ship channel and construction of a new turning basin.
The expansions are necessary for the port to handle the larger ships expected to call in the next decade as the ThyssenKrupp steel plant opens and the Panama Canal is widened.
Officials expect to see more than double the number of ships that currently call at the port. Officials expect the number to increase from 250 a year to anywhere from 600 to 900 ships a year.
The Alabama State Port Authority wants to extend the ship channel beyond a point near Little Sand Island where the channel is 40 to 45 ft deep.
The project would encompass two phases. Phase 1 would be a 2,100-ft extension that will serve the Mobile Container Terminal at Choctaw Point.
Phase 2 would consist of a 1,200-ft deepening to serve the Mobile River Terminal.
Port officials expect to receive about US$2.9 million in federal funds for the 2,100-ft extension and to spend about $1 million of the port's funds on the project. The 1,200-ft extension will be paid for with about $2.3 million in federal funds and $792,000 in port funds.
Meanwhile, the turning basin would be constructed between Pinto and Little Sand Island and ease traffic for several terminals including steel and container terminals and the McDuffie Coal Terminal.
The basin will be 45 ft deep, 1,550 ft long and 870 ft wide. The project will cost about $21 million, with about 75 percent of the funding coming from the state and federal governments.
Currently, the port's turning basin is located about four miles from the southern tip Pinto Island, resulting in a two-hour round trip for any ship that needs to use it.
Port officials hope to break ground on the channel extension projects by next year. The port already approved the financial agreements with the Army Corps of Engineers and expects to go out for bid on the project this month.
The extensions are predicted to take about three months to complete. Port officials hope the work is finished before the Mobile Container Terminal opens next fall.
The turning basin project, however, will not begin until 2009.
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