The Los Angeles Harbor Commission yesterday approved $7.5 million for the final phase of the Port of Los Angeles’ Main Channel Deepening Project (MCDP).
The project has taken the Port’s main navigational channels and basins to a 53-foot depth, ensuring that the nation’s number one gateway for containerized trade can accommodate container ships of all sizes for decades to come.
“ Channel deepening has been our single-most important infrastructure priority,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Geraldine Knatz, Ph.D. “ Channel depth and state-of-the-art facilities are critical components of our superior logistics. The completion of this project is critical to meeting the needs of the shipping lines that call at our Port and growing our cargo business well into the future. ”
Dredging of the Port’s Main Channel and turning basins has already been completed. The final phase of the project involves removal of dredge surcharge material and completion of a shallow water habitat in the outer harbor.
The Port’s nine container terminal tenants rely on the Port’s deep channels to move cargo. Container terminals generate about 74 percent of Port revenues and help facilitate hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs throughout Southern California. The 15-year, $370 million project will be completed in early 2013.
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Press Release, September 21, 2012