This activity has traditionally been performed by
commercial dredging contractors under contract
to port authorities or by port authority personnel
using publicly owned dredgers. It is estimated
that maintenance dredging is a $4–5 billion
available annual market that can be completely
turned over to the private sector. Port authorities
that own and operate their own dredging equipment
could corporatize the dredging function
and sell the business along with its assets to the
private sector. But more innovative concepts for
privatizing maintenance dredging might be considered.
For example, maintenance dredging
could be outsourced on a concession basis similar
to the concession awarded for channel dredging
and maintenance in the Rio Parana, where a
portion of the project revenues will come from
direct charges by the concessionaire to future
channel users and the port authority receives a
concession fee. A more radical concept could be
a contract between a dredging company and a
container shipping company or consortium of
companies to maintain specified water depths at
the carrier’s terminals on a worldwide basis.
Much depends, however, on the volumes to be
dredged and the timing of the dredging.