Port of Miami Hopes To Be Ready For Mega Ships

  It looks like the Port of Miami will win the race among Florida ports vying to be ready for the "post-Panamax" world. Miami hopes to be the first port facility in Florida to be ready to accommodate the larger "mega-ships" that will be arriving when the expansion work is completed on the Panama Canal, sometime in 2015. The Florida Times Union reports the federal government announced in July that expansion plans for five ports on the east coast would be expedited: Savannah, New York/New Jersey, Charleston, Jacksonville and Miami. There's a limited amount of federal dollars available for these channel deepening projects and the Port of Miami is ahead of the pack. They have already settled an environmental lawsuit, have all the necessary approvals and the state of Florida agreed to kick in $77 million toward the $180 million "deep dredge" price tag. Currently the port of Savannah handles almost as many containers as Jacksonville, Miami and Port Everglades combined. Florida ports are hoping to change that in the near future.