SAVANNAH - Georgia officials are looking to Washington to see if the president is requesting funds to begin deepening the Savannah harbor.
President Barack Obama was releasing his budget proposal for the next fiscal year Wednesday. The Georgia Ports Authority is hoping for federal funding to start construction on the $652 million harbor deepening by the end of 2013. Obama has included token amounts for the project in past budgets.
Savannah and other East Coast ports are racing to deepen their harbors to make room for supersized cargo ships expected to begin arriving through an expanded Panama Canal in 2015.
Georgia officials have set aside $231 million for the Savannah project. But most of the money was to come from Washington, where a focus on deficit reduction has made budgets extremely tight.
Read more in Thursday's Savannah Morning News and here at savannahnow.com.