THE PORT EVERGLADES DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDS APPROVAL.
This item supports the Broward County Board of County Commissioners' (Board) Value of "Ensuring economic opportunities for Broward’s diverse population and businesses" and the Goal to "Increase the economic strength and impact of revenue-generating County enterprises balancing economic, environmental, and community needs."
The state of Florida has identified the Port Everglades Dredging and Widening Project as a high priority to encourage funds flow to the project. A Joint Participation Agreement (JPA) between Broward County and the Florida Department of Transportation (Financial Project No. 433414-1-94-02) for State partial funding of costs associated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Port Everglades Navigation Improvements (Deepening and Widening) Project was approved by the Board on April 4, 2017 (Item No. 3) for Fiscal Year 2016-2017. The JPA approved a project cost of $45,000,000 and provided grant funding in the amount of $22,500,000 to the Port Everglades Department for expenses related to the Dredging and Widening project's construction, which required matching funds from Broward County in the amount of $22,500,000.
Subsequently, in Fiscal Year 2017-2018, FDOT approved the disbursement of an additional $28,888,637 in the Supplemental Joint Participation Agreement (SJPA) No. 1, which required matching funds from Broward County in the amount of $28,888,637. SJPA No. 1 was approved by the Board on June 12, 2018 (Item No. 30).
FDOT has approved for Fiscal Year 2018-2019 the disbursement of an additional $15,000,000 that requires matching funds from Broward County in the amount of $15,000,000. The agreement document for the disbursement of these funds as well as any future project funding is a new Public Transportation Grant Agreement (PTGA) standard form. With the execution of the PTGA, total project costs covered by the JPA, SJPA No. 1, and PTGA are $132,777,274, with FDOT providing 50% of the funding. The FDOT Five-Year Work Program (2019-2023) includes an additional $24,861,363 in FDOT funds (subject to appropriations) programmed for the project in Fiscal Year 2019-2020, which will bring FDOT's total funding to $91,250,000 of the overall estimated $389,303,000 Dredging and Widening Project total cost.
Completing the project is needed for Port Everglades to create adequate capacity (depth and width) to accommodate "Neo-Panamax" vessels that call at the Port today, as well as those that traverse the widened Panama Canal. It will enable Port Everglades to remain competitive with other ports and market to ocean carriers on the East-West and North-South trade lanes.
A requirement for this additional funding is to execute this PTGA between FDOT and Broward County prior to disbursement of any funding. This PTGA is written in the standard FDOT format and has been approved as to form by the County Attorney’s Office. FDOT will execute the Agreement after Board approval.
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