[srmanuel]

I think this is a play by Florida for a longer term solution, California ports are going to be chronic problem with the State’s environmental laws on trucks and laws governing contract truckers or sole proprietors....

Jacksonville has somewhat of a unique location, 2 major interstate highways pass right near the port....I-10 west bound and I-95 Northbound, and I-75 is maybe 60 miles away via I-10....so it can get trucks on the road to nearly anywhere in short order...

The City for years has been trying to lure air cargo carriers to setup operations in Jacksonville, Cecil Field is a former Marine Corp Jet base, it has a huge runway, with train tracks thru the property and I-10 and I-95 minutes away.....

Jacksonville could be come a major port of entry going forward....

[Publius]

Norfolk Southern and CSX also have major connections.

[Alberta's Child]

A lot of the focus here has been on the capacity of the Panama Canal and the toll for a container ship to make a transit through the canal. What is being overlooked here is that the biggest constraint for secondary ports like Jacksonville is usually the landside infrastructure and/or the channel limitations.

The Port of Jacksonville currently has a posted channel depth of 40 feet. I’m not sure if that’s the minimum depth at low tide or the maximum depth at high tide, but it either case it’s not deep enough to handle the Post-Panamax or “New Panamax” vessels used by the major ocean carriers for their trans-Pacific service. These vessels couldn’t make port calls at Jacksonville even if the Panama Canal was 10 miles wide and the toll was $0.