Record funding OK’d for Savannah harbor

A key federal agency on Monday announced plans to set aside a record amount of funding for the Savannah harbor deepening project following an intense lobbying campaign by the state and its allies.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it plans to spend nearly $35 million on the roughly $1 billion project in its 2018 budget work plan. That’s in addition to the $50 million Congress had carved out for Savannah in its March government spending package, on its own a high water mark for one of Georgia’s top economic development projects.

The total amount allocated still falls short of the roughly $100 million advocates were initially pushing for this budget cycle. But still, the Georgia Ports Authority

and the state’s congressional delegation celebrated the news and said it was enough to keep the project “on track.”

“It speaks volumes,” said Griff Lynch, the executive director of the Ports Authority. The White House and corps “view this project as extremely critical to the nation and they’ve acted accord

ingly with the money.”