Cargo Business Techwire

Friday, January 30, 2015

Sand-clogged shipping lane costs shippers at N.C. port

The shipping channel at the Morehead City state port in North Carolina is clogged with the heaviest shoaling in decades — reducing the navigable depth for freight-laden vessels by 10 feet. This is forcing shippers to lighten their loads, which cost one port customer more than $2 million a month.

"I’ve been a pilot for 30 years, and it’s the worst that I’ve ever seen the channel," said Andrew Midgett Jr., president of the Morehead City Pilots Association. "Ships want to come in at the maximum draft they can, because it saves them money. The deeper the ship, the fewer the calls."

The natural migration of Shackleford Banks, a
barrier island, is slowly dumping what one coastal
engineer calls "an avalanche of sand" into the

Beaufort Inlet channel.

The Army Corps of Engineers will open bids Jan. 21 on a contract to spend around $4 million for dredging that would start in February. It will be enough to scoop out 375,000 cubic yards of sand from the shallowest part of the channel. No more federal dredging funds will be available until October.

Pilots, port customers and state officials say as much as $20 million is needed for more extensive dredging to get ahead of the problem — and to avert more acute shoaling.

For more of the News Observer story: www.newsobserver.com