Port of Baltimore a Step Closer to Hosting Larger Ships

Port of Baltimore is to receive the funding to deepen the second container berth to 50 feet in order to be able to accommodate larger vessels.

Namely, the Maryland Port Administration will receive USD 6.6 million in US Department of Transportation grant funding to contribute to the deepening project at the Seagirt Marine Terminal.

The state of Maryland will contribute USD 7.8 million and Ports America Chesapeake, which operates the Seagirt Marine Terminal, will add USD 18.4 million for a total project cost of USD 32.7 million.

The second 50-foot deep draft container berth, for which the construction would start in the second half of 2019 and take one year to complete, would allow the Port of Baltimore to handle two supersized container ships simultaneously.

Separately, the US Army Corps of Engineers revealed that its crews launched a dredging project on December 10, which would see around 2 million cubic yards of material removed from six Baltimore Harbor channels.

The work is part of the regular maintenance of the multiple channels that go from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia all the way into Baltimore Harbor that require periodic dredging to ensure continued safe navigation for vessels going in and out of the Port of Baltimore.

The materials would be removed from channels in Maryland waters that are associated with the Port of Baltimore, including the Curtis Bay, Craighill Entrance, Craighill Channel, Craighill Angle, Craighill Upper Range, and Cutoff Angle segments.

The channels will be dredged to a depth of 51 feet plus one to two feet of allowable overdepth. Work is expected to be completed by early spring 2019.