The Port of Long Beach and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are proceeding with a Deep Draft Navigational Study to evaluate potential improvements to the Port’s deep-water branch channels.
The study will guide future navigational improvements building on the Main Channel Deepening Project completed in 2013, which provided a minimum depth of 76 feet from 2 miles outside the harbor entrance into Middle Harbor and the East Basin.
However, the Deepening Project did not include deep water branch channels into the outer, middle, or inner harbor container terminals. Although the depths vary, those channels are presently 48 to 52- feet deep in some areas.
The Long Beach Deep Draft Navigation Study is one of only three navigation studies selected nationwide in 2014 by the United States Federal Government.