Georgia and South Carolina will have to come up with $4.5 billion over the next 15 years to build a brand new port along the Savannah River.
But first, each state must finish —- and pay for —- massive port-deepening projects in Savannah and Charleston. And they must leave behind decades of animus and bistate rivalry that threatened Savannah's future as the Southeastern gateway for international trade.
A dredge, The Alaska, began deepening the Savannah River last week, a major step toward completion of the $706 million project by 2020. Charleston awaits final federal approval for a half-billion-dollar dredging project also scheduled for completion by then.
Yet Georgia still needs $400 million from Washington to finish its deepening. Charleston requires $166 million. Georgia and South Carolina will begin the lengthy regulatory approval process this fall for the so-called Jasper Ocean Terminal scheduled to open by 2030.
And, despite assurances that a Jasper port would be mutually beneficial, bad blood between the two states could overshadow its hoped-for success.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of that acrimony as to who is the main beneficiary, how are the costs allocated and does one state feel it’s not getting as much benefit as the other, ” said Steve Ellis, a vice president with Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonprofit fiscal watchdog in Washington. “And it’s not like there is a lack of port-deepening projects on the East Coast. Somebody is going to be a loser, and we’ll have a white elephant on our hands.”
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