The US is spending billions of dollars deepening port harbors to make room for 'mega' container ships that are only getting bigger

The world's largest cargo ship can carry over 23,000 containers and is as long as four football fields.
Over the past decade, the size of container ships has doubled. The problem for US ports is that the ships can't fit in most harbors.
Billions of dollars have been allocated by the Army Corp of Engineers to deepen ports.

Supersized ship dimensions must be accommodated in order to remain competitive in global trade.

The Port of New York and New Jersey has been deepened to make it possible for mega ships to travel through the Panama Canal.

One expert told Insider that the larger-than-life size of the vessels may be contributing to the supply-chain crisis.
The Marine Exchange of Southern California's executive director said that the ships are double or triple the size they were 15 years ago. They take longer to deliver. You need more things to put the cargo.

The benefits port economies have on local job markets is one of the reasons harbor-deepening projects like New York are being considered. There are environmental concerns about the North Carolina's $834 million Wilmington Harbor navigation improvement project.
Insider compiled a list of 10 harbor deepened projects currently in progress and their reported budgets. Federal and state funding is the majority for most projects.