The Port of San Juan, Puerto Rico, will soon have navigation channels with greater capacity, thanks to federal allocations for construction and maintenance totaling $61,6 million, secured by Representative Jenniffer González Colón.
The San Juan project consists of deepening the channel to allow larger commercial ships to navigate into the harbor.
The current circumstances of the bay area affect cruise ship traffic, as they are dealing with maneuverability issues that increase their transit time in the harbor.
“This project will allow Puerto Rico to continue advancing in its energy transformation and will help the cruise industry,” said Authority’s Executive Director, Joel Pizá.
In general, the project calls for dredging of the Army Terminal Channel from 40 feet to 44 feet deep, which will allow larger vessels to dock in the port.
“After this project, a ship will be able to transport 34.3 million gallons of LNG in San Juan Bay and not 5.2 million of gallons as it is now,” added Joel Pizá. “Also, larger cruise ships will be able to dock in our bay in the future and the time for docking maneuver will be reduced.”
If all goes according to schedule, dredging will commence this fall and will take a total of 18 months to complete.