On Thursday, leaders in Washington and Oregon politics and business who pushed the project forward put an exclamation on that fact by celebrating it at a Port of Vancouver event that drew more than 200 people.
For the port, the channel-deepening project already has helped attract an export operation that could generate at least 60 jobs and millions of dollars in revenue for other port ventures.
The project, which deepened the navigation channel from 40 feet to 43 feet, was one of the keys to obtaining a preliminary agreement with Australian mining giant BHP Billiton to ship fertilizers for crops from the port’s Terminal 5, according to Larry Paulson, executive director of the Port of Vancouver. “You have the ability to load more on bigger ships,” Paulson said when the port announced the deal with BHP two months ago.