Port of Virginia completes $450M dredging project

The Port of Virginia announced Wednesday that it is now home to the East Coast’s deepest port at 55 feet deep, at the conclusion of its $450 million project to dredge Virginia’s commercial shipping channels and Norfolk Harbor.

According to the port, channel dredging was completed on Feb. 28. The project, which started in 2019, was designed to produce channels deep and wide enough to safely handle two-way traffic for the largest ships in the Atlantic trade, without tidal restrictions or overhead obstructions. The port completed the widening portion of the project in February 2024.

“Completion of this project positions the Port of Virginia as a national leader in U.S. port infrastructure development and will help drive the Virginia economy,” said Sarah J. McCoy, the Virginia Port Authority‘s interim executive director. “In order to be America’s most modern gateway, you have to offer modern infrastructure and with a restriction-free channel that is capable of easily handling the biggest ships in the Atlantic trade, we are.”

The port reported that a post-dredge survey is underway to confirm the channel’s depth and width, along with additional maintenance work. Once the expanded and deepened channel has been mapped and its depths verified, maritime charts will be updated to reflect the increased capacity. All work is expected to be completed by late spring.

“Delivering projects like the 55-foot channel are important today, but the real value is in how these projects position us for the future,” McCoy said in a statement. “With all of our foundational elements in place, we are assuring our customers and port users that they will be able to expand their operations and cargo volumes at the Port of Virginia without concern for outgrowing our capabilities. We’re prepared today for the demands of the next five, 10 or 15 years.”

The dredging project is one of the key projects in the port’s $1.4 billion Gateway Investment Program, a capital construction campaign that started in 2023. Fully operational projects include an $83 million expansion of the port’s annual rail capacity to 2 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), and a $220 million conversion of the Portsmouth Marine Terminal into a deep-water heavy-lift facility.

A $650 million project to renovate and reconfigure the North Berth at Norfolk International is underway, with construction past the halfway mark, and completion scheduled for mid-2027.

Last month, the port brought a fourth ultra-large container vessel berth into operation. The port said that a fifth ultra-large container vessel berth is being developed at NIT’s North Berth and is scheduled to be in operation in 2027

The Port of Virginia is one of the state’s economic drivers, accounting for more than 565,000 jobs, more than $124.1 billion in total spending and $5.8 billion in state and local tax revenues.