Port exec: $90 million in dredging in two years

FRANKLIN — Dredging with a value of $90 million over the last two years has cleared the way for marine traffic in the Port of Morgan City, the port’s director told the St. Mary Parish Council on Wednesday.

And that’s good for business in St. Mary, Executive Director Raymond “Mac” Wade said.

“For the first time in many, many years, we have a channel,” Wade said.

Wade reports to local governments periodically. Not many reports are as optimistic as Wednesday’s.

The dredging amounted to $40 million in 2021 and $50 million this year, Wade said.

That money is spent by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, charged with maintaining federal waterways.

Port officials are trying to attract larger import-export vessels that could use the Port of Morgan City as a transshipment point, especially for Louisiana-grown rice.

That traffic was beginning to mount until 2015, after which a series of floods and the diversion of Mississippi River water into the Atchafalaya dumped sediment into the port’s channel.

Now the channel is close to its authorized dimensions of 20 feet deep by 400 feet wide all the way to the sea buoy.

And it’s not just about the big trade vessels. Wade said the open channel allows local shipyards to go after bigger projects.

They have, he said, been building ferries, tugs and barges for the likes of the U.S. Navy, the Army and the Corps of Engineers.

“Those businesses are all very busy,” Wade said. “All of this is taking place because we have a reliable, navigable channel.”

A combination of state and federal grants is also funding an expansion of the port’s dock from 800 feet of river frontage to 1,900 feet, Wade said.

That led Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews, who congratulated Wade on the port’s progress, to ask whether similar funding might be available for the Port of West St. Mary. Mathews represents District 1, which covers the westernmost portion of the parish.

Wade noted that the Port of West St. Mary is not on a federally maintained channel. But he said he works with colleagues at the western port to obtain funding from the state and other sources.