A long-range master planning program positioned Port Everglades to balance growth, evolving industry demands, resilience, and electrification over the next 20 years.
Ports are entering a period of significant transformation. Growth in cruise and cargo volumes are occurring alongside terminal electrification, vessel shore power, alternative fuels, larger vessels, growth in high value refrigerated cargoes, and evolving supply chains. Together, these changes are influencing how ports invest in infrastructure for both today’s operations and decades of future growth.
Port Everglades recognized how these trends would influence its diverse mix of cruise, container, petroleum, breakbulk, dry bulk and roll-on/roll-off cargo operations and initiated its 2024 Master/Vision Plan update to guide future development.
Our specialist ports team partnered with Port Everglades to update its Master/Vision Plan and assess opportunities and challenges for both short- and long-term growth while establishing a roadmap for capital investments across 5-, 10- and 20-year planning horizons. The plan sought to address a broad set of issues, including resilience, decarbonization, electrification, vessel shore power, alternative fuels, larger container vessels and throughput, increasing cruise demand and transportation congestion.
Planning for growth and change
Port Everglades needs to balance multiple business lines and evaluate how changing industry conditions could affect future infrastructure needs. Planning for the port’s next 20 years required a clear understanding of how its infrastructure is performing today and where future demand could create friction points, new needs, and opportunities.
We developed an integrated planning process that combines facility assessments, terminal and berth capacity analyses, transportation studies, environmental evaluations, market forecasting, affordability analyses, and financial modeling. Existing conditions assessments examined land use, facilities, cargo operations, transportation networks, traffic, parking and environmental conditions. Market analyses evaluated long-term trends across the port’s major business lines while considering supply chain changes, alternative energy needs, cold storage demand, and other emerging opportunities. From this work, we developed project concepts and a decision matrix to help Port Everglades weigh competing priorities and determine where investment would deliver the greatest value.
Rather than producing individual recommendations for each business line, the Master/Vision Plan established a coordinated strategy that helps guide future development across the port while balancing operational, environmental and financial considerations
Integrating tomorrow’s infrastructure into today’s decisions
Electrification and decarbonization are becoming increasingly important parts of port infrastructure planning. Across Florida, ports and terminal operators are starting to invest in electrification of infrastructure and equipment as part of terminal modernization programs and to prepare for future growth, as well as support vessel operators that are pursuing emissions goals. Implementation of new technologies are changing the energy requirements at these terminals while increasing reliability.
For Port Everglades, we incorporated these shifts into the Master/Vision Plan to understand how they could influence future infrastructure investment. We evaluated electrification alongside resilience, alternative fuels, capacity and operational requirements, including opportunities for shore power and future fuel infrastructure. Planning these requirements now helps Port Everglades identify investments that can accommodate changing technologies and operational needs while reducing the cost and disruption of future retrofits.
A roadmap that evolves with the port
Long-range planning evolves alongside the port itself. Our team previously led Port Everglades’ 2009 and 2014 Master/Vision Plan updates, with the latest update building on that work as market conditions, technologies and infrastructure needs continue to change. This continuity and completed Master/Vision Plan gives Port Everglades an actionable roadmap that can adapt with the maritime industry, helping the port weigh competing priorities and make informed investment decisions across its near-term and long-term planning horizons.