Port Tampa Bay’s Big Bend Channel Expansion project is finished a year earlier from the scheduled time. The project that costed $63 million will enable the accommodation of larger vessels in the port’s terminals at Port Redwing. The project deepened the Big Bend Channel from 34 to 43 feet. It widened the entrance channel from 200 to 250 feet for a length of 1.9 miles, and it deepened the existing turning basin to 43 feet.
As Port Tampa Bay president and CEO Paul Anderson reported
This is one of the largest projects we have worked on at Port Tampa Bay. This is a legacy that truly reshapes our economic landscape and will impact generations to come.
In the meantime, the US Corps of Engineers’ Jacksonville District presented the Big Bend award to Great Lakes Dredge & Docks Company.
The project began in October 2018 and finished the previous week, on the contrary to the expectations that it would be finalized in 18 months, meaning April 2020.
Moreover, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Florida Department of Transportation, Port Tampa Bay and two of the largest port users, Mosaic and Tampa Electric are responsible for funding the dredging project.
The dredging project will provide many benefits to Port Redwing. The latter, is about 270 acres of Port Tampa Bay property in southern Hillsborough County.
The port is expected to flourish into a major hub for warehousing and distribution within the next ten years.
This area is served by the Big Bend Channel, which connects to the main channel in Tampa’s harbor. The channel also serves separate private terminals for Mosaic and Tampa Electric.
The port supports that except the shipping part, the migratory birds will also benefit from the project.
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Mainly, the Corps of Engineers has built two large dredge spoil islands in Hillsborough Bay, which are popular nesting sites for skimmers, oystercatchers, terns and gulls, among other species.
The islands are off-limits to the public and are considered amongst Florida’s most important sites for colonial beach-nesting birds.
The Big Bend Project dredged up about 3.4 million cubic yards of material, enough to add another 100 acres of possible nesting area to one of the spoil sites.