After 24 years, Port of Iberia leaders are in the last lap of realizing their long-awaited dream of a deepened access channel to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Acadiana Gulf of Mexico Access Channel has been one of the longest standing infrastructure projects in Iberia Parish that has even been supported by past presidents of the United States.

Speaking to the Iberia Parish Council Wednesday, Port of Iberia Commissioner Roy Pontiff was able to confidently say that the channel waters at the port will no longer be a mere 13 feet deep by this time next year.

“I can stand before you today with confidence that by this time next year the access channel will have 150 feet bottom width and be -16 feet deep from the Port of Iberia to the Gulf of Mexico,” he said.

Pontiff said the vision for a deeper access channel has always been to accommodate larger vessels who will want to use the AGMAC, which will bring in more business to the port.

“We learned early that our vision of bringing more companies to the port was getting difficult because of the depth of our channel,” he said. “The vessels are getting much larger and that’s why we started this process 24 years ago.”

Pontiff said the dream of a deepened channel took not, but three acts of Congress and authorized dredging began 10 years ago to dredge a 16-feet channel from the port to the Gulf.

The reliance on federal dollars for the project was changed at around the same time, and much of the funding has come from the state government since thanks to Executive Director Craig Romero’s ties in Baton Rouge, Pontiff said.

The AGMAC Project has received $124 million in the last few years, which is enough to complete the project. The project is currently working on the second phase of dredging scheduled to be completed next April, as well as the third phase which will widen the locks in order to accommodate larger vessels to end in May.