The latest price tag for raising high-voltage power lines across the St. Johns River for passage of bigger cargo ships has shot up to about $105 million, double the estimated cost from two years ago.
The surge in cost will require identifying far more money to raise the transmission lines that JaxPort says are a barrier to Asian trade because cargo container ships that cross the ocean keep getting larger and require additional aerial clearance.
JaxPort previously obtained funding commitments by the city of Jacksonville and the state Department of Transportation to cover $45 million in expenses for raising the power lines, a complex undertaking that will require using helicopters to set the structures and pull the wires.
JEA agreed to do the work but had said in the past it would not provide any funding for the project. But with the cost going up, JEA now is open to being a financial partner.
JEA spokeswoman Karen McAllister said the port is a "logistics hub for the entire Southeast" and raising the power lines will have a "significant impact on JaxPort’s ability to continue to provide jobs, economic growth and supply chain security."
"JEA wants to be part of the solution as we continue providing reliable service to Northeast Florida," McAllister said.
The earlier $45 million cost figure came from a feasibility study that Worley Group did for JEA about raising the transmission lines that carry electricity that ends up powering about half of all the utility's customers.
Worley said in its report that based on information available for a feasibility study, the cost could range from about $33.5 million to $54.4 million.
The higher figure of $105 million comes from a more detailed 30% design of the project by Quanta Services for JEA. The utility would build new taller towers for holding up the high-voltage lines so they cross the river to the west of the current lines. The goal for completing the work is by the end of 2026.
According to a report by Quanta Services, shifting the lines west would be the least costly of five alternatives it evaluated. Four other options would range in cost from $143 million to $190 million.
JEA power lines pose limitation on some but not all cargo vessels
JaxPort's tenants move a diverse mix of cargo and much of it is on ships that can easily pass under the power lines such as vessels serving Puerto Rico and Caribbean market and ships moving automobiles. The jumbo-sized ships that are growing in size carry cargo containers — the big steel boxes for transporting goods around the world — on Asian and European trade lanes.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed a river deepening project in May 2022 from the Atlantic Ocean to the Blount Island terminal for those cargo container ships.
JaxPort says the global maritime industry continues to manufacture cargo container ships in ever-larger sizes with some already coming to East Coast ports. JaxPort said the height of the transmission lines, which cross the river just east of Blount Island, is a ceiling on Jacksonville keeping up with that trend.
JaxPort is working with JEA on a way to cover the increased cost for raising the transmission lines, port authority spokeswoman Chelsea Kavanagh said.
She said the project remains justified at the higher expense because it is "essential to maximizing the return on investment of more than $700 million of public and private-sector investments that have been made in recent years" to build Jacksonville's ability to gain business from the international shipment of cargo containers.
She said the deepening the harbor and raising the power lines "create or protect 15,000 jobs" supported by the growth of Asian trade flowing through the port. The jobs include work in trucking, warehousing and distribution.
JaxPort has had fairly steady volume over the past four years for cargo containers moving across its docks.
JaxPort statistics show the equivalent of 1.31 million 20-foot cargo containers in the 2023 fiscal year, a small increase from the 1.298 million units in the 2022 fiscal year. For the current fiscal year, JaxPort is on pace for about 1.34 million units. Those figures are for cargo containers from all parts of the world, including the Jacksonville-Puerto Rico trade lane.
The high-water mark for cargo containers was 1.4 million units in the 2021 fiscal year. That came as the country was coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic before the Army Corps completed harbor deepening all the way to Blount Island.
Jacksonville City Council voted in January 2023 to use city dollars toward raising the transmission lines. In that agreement, the city would provide a $10 million grant and $12.5 million loan to JaxPort. The port authority obtained a matching $22.5 million commitment from the state Department of Transportation.
The city of Jacksonville "remains committed to ensuring that JaxPort has the infrastructure in place to continue growing and remain an important contributor to Jacksonville's economy," city spokesman Phillip Perry said.
"We are aware that JEA and JaxPort are discussing a path forward, and we await the results of those discussions," he said.
The report by Quanta lists several difference between the assumptions in its design study and the feasibility study by Worley Group in terms of construction crews, equipment such as cranes and helicopters, and timetable for doing the work. A significant difference in the two studies is Worley did not have a cost estimate for creating access to the work site. Quantos said "significant access is required" and that accounts for $21.5 million of the total cost estimate.
The bottom-line $105 million figure includes $11.2 million as a contingency amount for unanticipated expenses.
The cost of the project will continue to go through analysis as design moves forward. JEA wants to have a guaranteed maximum price by the end of the year.
