Committed to doing it right at Port Everglades

Port Everglades has embarked on a navigation improvements project that will create more jobs, improve port transit safety and efficiency, and leverage our world-class South Florida facilities to increase tourism and trade opportunities.

The main features of the project are to deepen the Port’s main navigational channels for today’s larger cargo ships, and widen certain areas so cargo ships can pass safely by docked cruise ships. A product of comprehensive planning and stakeholder input, the expansion project is a careful and systematic process that is currently on target to meet its expected completion date of 2024.

Competition is a fact of life and it is imperative that Port Everglades remains competitive so that it can continue delivering robust economic benefits to our community. The maritime industry has experienced significant changes and there is increasing pressure on ports to modernize and expand in order to accommodate increased trade, larger and more sophisticated vessels, cruise ship industry growth and increasing port security measures.

Ports like New York/New Jersey and Baltimore have already completed projects to modernize and expand their facilities, and Savannah and Jacksonville are currently in the process of expanding their ports to address these changing needs. Port Everglades must expand to compete globally.

Broward’s natural resources are an integral part of what makes our county such a great place to live, do business and to visit. Because we have one of the most diverse ecosystems in the country, Port Everglades’ approach must prioritize protecting our marine environment and natural resources. Broward County is working closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) to ensure that the final Port Everglades expansion engineering plan adheres to the highest environmental standards. We are proud of the county’s record on the environment, but every port expansion project faces unique environmental challenges and opportunities.

We are in the enviable position of learning from the successes and challenges faced by expansion at other seaports, and using them to fine-tune the approach to this project. Broward County has encouraged the USACOE and National Marine Fisheries Service to develop a plan that blends traditional and more innovative approaches to environmental protection. We have also formed an Interagency Working Group that has been involved in scope development for the project’s required underwater surveys and the formation of the monitoring plan.

A key environmental component of the approved plan includes planting approximately 103,000 new nursery-raised corals in approximately 18 acres of existing reef areas along the Broward County coastline, and creating roughly five acres of artificial reef by relocating approximately 11,500 corals. In addition, the mitigation plan includes restoring seagrasses and mangroves in West Lake Park, and building environmentally friendly bulkheads throughout the Southport Access Channel. These pioneering attributes will significantly reduce the project’s environmental impact from what was originally planned nearly 20 years ago, and additional studies during the project’s current design phase will only strengthen this initiative without delaying the process.

Throughout this process Broward County is committed to employing state of the art science and engineering that delivers the greatest economic and environmental benefit. A rigorous, open and inclusive process has been established by the USACOE to ensure community engagement, gather input from the public and numerous port stakeholders. The process continues to be transparent and flexible, from the careful coordination of other port projects, the USACOE Environmental Impact Statement and Feasibility report, we are committed to doing this right.

I encourage you to attend the next public meeting on Feb. 22 from 2-4 p.m. at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center to learn more about this project and what it means to our community. Steven M. Cernak is chief executive and port director at Broward County’s Port Everglades.