Piedroba talks WRRDA

Piedroba president Luis Prieto-Muñoz was recently asked by South Florida's local channel 10 about the current status of the WRRDA, and its effect on Ports in South Florida, specifically Port Everglades.  Prieto-Muñoz,said that although the new legislation focuses on the Corps studying ways to involve non-federal sponsors to a greater degree, the bill could benefit Port Everglades if it manages to complete the dredging project."If Port Everglades deepens [to 50-foot], the federal government would be responsible for 100 percent of the project's navigation maintenance cost," Prieto-Muñoz said.

Jelle Prins, in an interviewing with Dredging Today that was published May 17th, 2014 spoke about how WRRDA, and the deviation toward greater non-federal involvement in the maintenance, planning, and construction of federal waterway projects, as currently being used by his client PortMiami: 

 "The difficulties in obtaining project specific funding, a general lack of federal monies for waterways, and the looming expanded capacity of the Panama Canal have changed the dynamics of projects like the Miami Harbor Deepening.

PortMiami is a seminal example of this new trend, where the Corps remains the entity undertaking the responsibility of designing, planning, and administrating the project, but a Non-Federal Sponsor undertook all financial responsibilities in order to get the project constructed, and satisfy the emerging shipping needs."

Both articles can be found here: 
http://www.local10.com/news/politicians-recent-water-resources-bill-victory-doesnt-mean-federal-cash-for-south-florida-ports/25980018 
 http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2014/05/17/exclusive-interview-with-one-of-the-partners-of-piedroba/