Florida Seaport System Plan - SeaCIP

Florida Seaport System Plan
Port of Fort Pierce
• Throughput. 0.358 million tons; and 14,800 TEUs.
• Anticipated Growth. For Fiscal Year 2013/2014, the Port of Fort Pierce
anticipates handling 0.923 million tons, and 27,500 TEUs.
Port of Key West
• Throughput. 0.864 million passengers.
• Anticipated Growth. For Fiscal Year 2013/2014, the Port of Key West
anticipates handling 0.775 million passengers.
Common Themes
Taking these findings as a whole, common themes can be identified:
• Collectively, Florida’s ports have significant “strengths to build on,”
provided that key constraints are addressed. Most (although not all) ports
report a common set of constraints: navigation channel/turning basin/berth
improvements, terminal space, compatibility with adjoining land uses,
truck/rail access, and connectivity with key inland markets. Assisting the
ports in addressing these constraints, as a funding and implementation
partner, has been and should continue to be an FDOT priority.
• Individually, some of Florida’s ports are several years from facing
significant conditions (congested or constrained), while others face these
conditions today. In part this reflects differences in physical and
operational factors, but for the most part it reflects differences in timing.
Ports tend to grow in a step-wise fashion – they develop to meet an initial
market need, then expand to serve market growth. The first phases of
capacity expansion tend to be the least expensive and easiest to accomplish;
the later phases tend to become increasingly more expensive and/or
difficult, but the benefits of achieving them tend to be greater because there
is more throughput at stake.
• Different ports are at different stages in this life cycle, and FDOT must
consider the needs of well developed ports (to manage immediate and nearterm
pressures) as well as the needs of lesser developed ports (to support
healthy expansion), in the context of a larger statewide strategy.
• Many of Florida’s ports have reached or are approaching the end of the life
span of core infrastructure elements (e.g., bulkheads, berths, wharfs, slips).
These structural deficiencies represent significant challenges to seaports;
they are expensive to reconstruct and a failure results in an inability to
service vessels. The reconstruction of core infrastructure will need to be
addressed.
4-9 Florida Department of Transportation
December 2010