Isakson, Thurmond agree Georgia needs deepened Savannah River

Florida Times Union:

ATLANTA - Deepening the Savannah River to accommodate larger ships is on the minds of both major-party candidates for U.S. Senate.

Wednesday, Republican incumbent Johnny Isakson discussed it when he met with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar along with Sen. Saxby Chambliss and officials from fish and wildlife management agencies. The goal was to isolate the environmental challenges to the proposed deepening and to develop plans for mitigating them.

Solving environmental concerns is a key hurdle in getting federal funds needed to dredge the river from 41 feet to 48 so that the larger ships using the widened Panama Canal will be able to get to up river to the Savannah harbor even at low tide.

"I'm going to work as hard as I can to procure the funding because it's a tremendous asset for the whole state," Isakson said Friday.

Democratic challenger Michael Thurmond agrees on that much.

"My highest economic-development priority will be the deepening of the Savannah River," he said.

Thurmond argues that because he is in the same party as President Barack Obama, he'll have better luck working with the administration.

Indeed, party is one of the differences between Isakson and Thurmond when it comes to federal transportation policy.

A key point of departure is their views on rail, whether for commuters or high-speed interstate travelers.

Both rejected Obama's recent $50 billion road, rail and runways stimulus proposal that died in Congress. They said it failed to include funding.

In general, though, Thurmond recognizes the potential the proposal had to stimulate job creation and the benefit it could have for the environment by getting drivers off the road.

"We need to shift our priorities from highways to rail," he said during an interview Friday. "Georgia is a perfect example of a state that failed to envision the future in regards to transportation."

Congestion in Atlanta and other cities could have been avoided with a more expansive mass-transit system. Lack of planning in recent years has kept the state from capitalizing on federal funding initiatives, he said.

"Georgia has been left standing at the transit station in the last few years," said Thurmond.

Isakson, though, has a different view. He sees a more limited role for the federal government when it comes to passenger rail. He said it should resemble the model of aviation or freight railroads where private companies own and operate the equipment based on the fare they charge and the government only maintains safety and basic infrastructure.

"The airport model and the air-transportation model are far superior to our current rail model," he said.