House and Senate negotiators on Thursday unveiled details of a compromise bill that authorizes billions of dollars for water projects over the next decade, including the long-awaited deepening of the rapidly growing Port of Savannah.
The House is expected to vote on the Water Resources Development Act as early as Tuesday, with the Senate following suit. Both House and Senate versions passed easily last year and indications are the compromise legislation will do the same.
In Savannah, the bill represents the last major stumbling block to a $652 million project that has been 15 years in the making. Deepening the Savannah River channel from 42 to 47 feet will allow the port to welcome the larger container ships expected to come calling once the Panama Canal expansion is complete sometime in 2016.
In Savannah, the bill’s passage would mean that only a Project Partnership Agreement between the Georgia Ports Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is needed for dredging contracts to be let. The two parties have been working on a draft agreement in anticipation of the bill’s passage.
“We’re continuing to move in the right direction,” said GPA Executive Director Curtis Foltz. “We’re hearing the bill could be passed as soon as next week and signed by the president within the next 30 days.
“The Corps is fully engaged in preparing the PPA, and we’re hopeful that we will have contracts awarded by the end of the year,” he said.
While the project still lacks federal funding, one thing the PPA will do is allow the state to use the more than $200 million it has set aside as its share of the project to begin digging.
“Once WRDA is passed into law, we will request permission from the Office of Management and Budget and Congress to begin negotiating a Project Partnership Agreement to share costs with Georgia,” said Russell Wicke, spokesman for the Corps’ Savannah District, adding that the process could take up to 90 days.
“In the interim, we are drafting and coordinating material for the agreement now and taking all the preliminary steps possible to expedite signing a PPA when we are approved to do so,” Wicke said. “When we have a signed PPA, we will advertise and award contracts for construction.
The earliest the Corps expects to begin construction is near the end of 2014, he said.
While there has been some opposition to the bill by conservative group that don’t think it reins in spending as much as it should, business groups — and many lawmakers — have called both versions of the bill a potential jobs engine, citing the investment in infrastructure.
The Chamber of Commerce has also lobbied lawmakers in both houses to pass the bill, saying it will ensure that American businesses stay competitive.
