Digging begins on $706 million deepening of Savannah harbor

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (AP) After a 16-year wait for studies and funding, workers aboard a 220-foot barge off the Georgia coast have begun deepening the channel used by cargo ships to reach the busy Port of Savannah.

Officials for contractor Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company said Monday they started digging sand from the bottom of the shipping channel late last week. Each day, the barge progresses about the length of a football field, removing roughly 1,400 dump truck loads of sand.

The Army Corps of Engineers is paying the contractor $134.5 million to deepen 17 miles of the Savannah River's shipping channel about halfway to the Savannah port. The company has until July 2018 to finish the job.

The harbor expansion, authorized by Congress in 1999, is expected to cost $706 million.