Earlier this week, Governor Deval Patrick got a firsthand look at the Panal Canal Expansion project, which could double outputs and inputs through the state’s largest port, South Boston’s Conley Terminal; the project, he said, will bolster the Massachusetts economy.

In a statement, Patrick explained, “The Panama Canal is a critical gateway to the Commonwealth. The expansion means more opportunity for shipping business in Massachusetts, more jobs, and greater economic benefit.

According to the state’s release, the number of cargo ships that make their way from the Panama Canal to Massport’s Conley Terminal bolster the entire region’s economy – not just the commonwealth. One-third of all waterborne cargo shipped in and out of New England is done so through the South Boston port. The rest is “primarily shipped through New York and New Jersey and carried into New England on land.”

In 2012, alone, Conley Terminal cargo was valued at $4.7 billion.

The Boston Globe’s Katie Johnston writes:

The stakes are high for both the Panama Canal, which is rapidly losing shipping traffic to the larger Suez Canal in Egypt, and the eastern ports of the United States, which, along with Asia, have the most ships using the passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific through the Isthmus of Panama. In Boston, the canal expansion, combined with a plan to dredge Boston Harbor to accommodate larger ships, could generate thousands of new jobs and more than $4 billion in new business at Conley Terminal, according to the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Massport CEO Thomas Glynn, who joined Governor Patrick and MassDOT CEO Richard Davey on the Innovation Partnership tour in Panama City, said, “Boston is the oldest continuously-operating port in the United States … We have a functional piece of history in the Seaport” – the Conley Container Terminal – “that has been providing jobs since the city’s inception.”

In order for the port to act as a state and regional economic stimulator, Johnston notes, Conley Terminal will need a substantial update. So, “Massport is pushing a $300 million project to dredge the channels to accommodate ships that can carry the equivalent of 10,000 20-foot containers.”

The dredge was approved last July, and, now, Massport is just waiting for Congress to fork over $170 million, “which could happen this spring,” Johnston writes.

As for the Panama Canal expansion itself, construction has been in the works for the last six years, and is expected to wrap up within the next two years. Once complete, the canal will be able to hold “nearly triple,” Johnston writes, what it can, currently.

“The work they are doing today has real impact and potential for the Commonwealth,” CEO Davey continued in the statement. “Transportation is a critical link and I am excited to see what results as this project moves towards completion.”

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