US ports seek hedge against Congress gridlock in dredging bill

[FORT LAUDERDALE] US Congress has run aground and Port Everglades doesn't want to.

Officials at the Southeast Florida seaport have a simple request: They want to deepen and widen a harbour already home to some of the world's biggest cruise ships to handle massive new Mediterranean Shipping Co freighters and other vessels making passage through a widened Panama Canal in order to compete with harbours from Houston to New York in an age of megaships.

The challenge is they require approval from a Congress that hasn't passed a water bill in seven years.

Tired of waiting and worried those bigger ships will bypass it for deeper waters…