PORT ST. JOE — A permit needed to begin dredging the Port of Port St. Joe’s federally-authorized shipping channel has been signed and certified, signifying the “green light” for development of the port.
Next up, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracts out the dredge project, estimated to take six months from the first turn of shovel while on a parallel path the Port Authority undertakes engineering, design and contracting for construction of spoil disposal infrastructure.
The federal permit was the final regulatory permit required to dredge the channel to a depth of 34-36 feet. Project manager Bill Perry from engineers Hatch Mott MacDonald called the permit the “green light” for dredging.
Permitting for the actual dredge work has been issued to the Army Corps by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The Corps took responsibility under an agreement with the Port Authority through which $40 million in funding flows from state sources through the Port Authority.
The FDEP, as something of a precursor to the federal permit certified last week, issued a permit for the spoil disposal side.
The spoil disposal, involving an estimated 5 million cubic yards of sediment, has been labeled by Perry one of the largest of its kind in the country.
The Corps permit was delivered to Port Authority chairman Eugene Raffield by Tommy Pitts, the former port director now working as project manager with Hatch Mott focusing on the port permitting.
“It is very satisfying,” Pitts said. “It is a pretty monumental feat to get a 5 million yard project like this permitted in 18 months. We are very happy here at (Hatch Mott).”
Since he came on the Port Authority board, Raffield has been centered on the shipping channel as the only hope for port viability.
He argued that any Port Authority activity not devoted to opening the shipping channel as fruitless without the channel.
“That is the only way you are going to have a port and jobs,” Raffield said. “All that other stuff doesn’t mean anything unless you get that channel dredged.
“We have a ship that is going in the right direction now instead of spinning around in circles.”
Final permitting has long been seen as the key to securing the state funding that will be required to complete the dredge project.
In addition to $20 million already appropriated for the dredging, another $20 to complete dredging is needed along with an estimated $15 million for the disposal side of the project.
“I do think we will get the funding from the state,” Raffield said. “The governor, Sen. (Bill) Montford, Rep. (Halsey) Beshears, they understand the investment needed.
“The (Florida) Department of Transportation is all over this.”
Raffield said that the private sector was already looking beyond the dredging and to the opportunities presented by the Port of Port St. Joe.
Raffield said several companies with financial wherewithal have inquired about the port and potential operations in Port St. Joe.
Those activities occur beyond the central rationale for the dredging: agreements between the St. Joe Company, the Port Authority and two energy companies to ship wood pellets through the Port of Port St. Joe.
Further, Eastern Shipbuilding continues to pay its lease with St. Joe for a portion of the deepwater bulkhead and purchased the former barge terminal land which the Port Authority lost in foreclosure.
“There is a lot of really good things going on,” Raffield said. “I’m very hopeful we are going to have some announcements to make in the next three or four months.”
The marketing effort is broadening also through Enterprise Florida.
The Port of Port St. Joe planning area was recently placed back on the Enterprise Florida website of potential economic development sites.
Raffield said the quasi-public agency is equipped to assist the Port Authority in identifying viable clients.
What he didn’t want, Raffield said, was to hear from the “wannabes.”
“I don’t want to hit a single, I want a home run,” Raffield has repeatedly stated. “I think Enterprise Florida could provide the expertise we just don’t have, at least I don’t have.”