US ports spend billions on bigger Panama Canal

This sense that the new set of locks now being built to allow giant ships through the Panama Canal will bring riches 1,000 miles or more to the north is shared by US industry and government officials along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, who have been promoting multimillion — and in some cases multibillion — dollar port projects for years.

The Obama administration has now moved to speed up the review process for developing and deepening the harbors for several of these ports, including those of New York and New Jersey; Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, and Miami. The initiative “will help drive job growth and strengthen the economy,” President Obama said in announcing it last month.

Source: New York Times