Port Tampa Bay is spending $21.5 million on a pair of new cranes that will be able to unload bigger container ships, and it is investing millions more to make it easier for trucks and trains to exit the port and be on their way.
The cranes will pass beneath the Sunshine Skyway bridge in March and be up and running by May, just before the widened Panama Canal expansion is scheduled to open later this year.
With more cargo expected to come to the eastern United States by sea, the port is betting that it can stake a claim to some of the new cargo traffic flowing through the canal.
The equipment is on its way to Tampa right now. Officials said the cranes will help open the port up to new business. “We can be a port where large ships come into Panama, the new canal,” Port Tampa Bay CEO Paul Anderson said.
Paul told that his port will build more new berths, warehouses and cargo facilities on more land than almost any other port in the United States in coming years.
Keying on the theme "New Frontiers" during his annual State of the Port address, Anderson said 2016 will be a "milestone year" at the port for handling containerized cargo. Though most widely known as a cruise embarkation point, Port Tampa Bay has refocused its commitment to cargo trade over the past year, Anderson said, making it the state's largest port for cargo handling.
Panama Canal Deputy Administrator Manuel Benitez says the equipment is coming to Tampa just in time, especially with the expansion of the canal set to be complete in the next several weeks.