There's an expensive and time-consuming fad sweeping America's ports: dredging. This is the process by which ports dig up the bottoms of their channels, either to maintain depth or go even deeper. In the last 5-10 years, dredging has taken ports by storm. To take just two examples: the Port of Boston recently completed a $350 million project to dredge the channel from 40 to 51 feet, and the Port of Miami requested a second dredge in 2018, just three years after completing a $205 million project to deepen their channel from 42 to 50 feet. They're far from the only ones, so why are ports in a such a race to dig deeper?

Further reading:

Miami Herald
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...

Massport
https://www.massport.com/massport/med...

Dredging Today
https://www.dredgingtoday.com/2013/04...

BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-214...

U.S DOT
https://explore.dot.gov/views/PortPro...

The Journal of Commerce
https://www.joc.com/maritime-news/con...

Martin Associates
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/ports...

McKinsey and Company
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mcki...

ITF-OECD
https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/defaul...

Subscribe to Cheddar on YouTube: http://chdr.tv/subscribe

Connect with Cheddar!
On Facebook: http://chdr.tv/facebook
On Twitter: http://chdr.tv/twitter
On Instagram: http://chdr.tv/instagram
On Cheddar.com: http://chdr.tv/cheddar