Widening of Port of Virginia shipping channel is complete

The Port of Virginia’s shipping channel is now wide enough for two ultra-large container vessels to pass at the same time, concluding a significant part of the $450 million dredging project to make the port the widest and deepest harbor on the East Coast. According to the Friday announcement, the port expects to finish the deepening segment of the project in fall 2025, a delay from its previously announced deadline of late 2024.

The dredging project began in 2019, and in 2022, the Port of Virginia and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed a cost-sharing agreement on the dredging project. As of Friday, the shipping channels are up to 1,400 feet wide in some areas, and the commercial shipping channel and the Norfolk Harbor will be 55 feet deep, while the ocean approach is set to be 59 feet deep.

In previous announcements, the whole dredging project was expected to be finished by the end of 2024, but Port of Virginia spokesman Joe Harris said Friday that federal permits allowing beach replenishment in Virginia Beach had to be renewed, causing a delay of a few months in the deepening segment of the project. Dredge material, a byproduct of the dig, will be used to build up regional beaches, port officials have said.

Harris said it’s possible that dredging will be finished before fall 2025, and noted that the widening is important to ship pilots who travel in and out of the port’s terminals in Norfolk. He added that the port is ahead of schedule on deepening the Thimble Shoal channel, and work is ongoing in the Norfolk Harbor.

The widening of the Thimble Shoal West Reach Channel will allow two ships to pass through the shipping channel at the same time, instead of just one at a time, Harris said in an interview with Virginia Business. “It’s basically making a one-way street a two-way street.” The port expects the expansion to reduce the amount of time an ultra-large container vessel spends on berth by 15%, which will improve efficiency and speed.

Capt. Jenn Stockwell, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Virginia sector, issued a business rules memo for the wider channel Friday, removing the one-way restrictions.

“This is a true advantage for anyone delivering to or from America,” said Stephen A. Edwards, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, which runs the Port of Virginia. “Our wider channel sets the Port of Virginia apart by allowing for consistent vessel flow, increasing berth and container yard efficiencies, and further improving harbor safety.

“Ocean carriers are putting larger vessels into their East Coast port rotations with additional ULCVs on order, and our partners know their vessels will not outgrow our capabilities. In Virginia, there is no concern for channel width, overhead draft restrictions, capacity or cargo handling infrastructure.”

Included in the funding of the project is $72 million in federal money allocated in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also known as the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The federal government and the port agreed to a 50-50 cost share in 2015, when the Army Corps began evaluating the economic value of a deeper and wider harbor and commercial shipping channel.

“The completion of this project is a testament to the collaboration of all port stakeholders in Virginia,” Capt. Whiting Chisman, president of the Virginia Pilot Association, said in a statement Friday. “It is a momentous achievement. The focus of the project more than a decade ago was on creating a channel wide enough and deep enough to safely accommodate a class of [ultra-large] container vessels that were not expected to call the U.S. East Coast for years to come. This port is ready for the future.”