VIDALIA — Vidalia’s mayor said he thinks changing diplomatic tides in the western hemisphere could be a boon for the city’s port project.

“The opening up of Cuba enhances the rice industry,” Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said. “Angelina Plantation is one of the largest rice producers around, and that (opening of Cuban markets) can be a tremendous asset as far as our port is concerned.

“Our goal is to make this into a major shipping and receiving hub.”

The widening of the Panama Canal could likewise make the port — which is currently under construction — a valuable asset as more cargo is moved between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, Copeland said.

The mayor said the city is currently working with the Port of New Orleans to ship from the Vidalia port to New Orleans.

“(Port Director Wyly Gilfoil) has contacted several clients who have expressed an interest in utilizing the port once we get it ready for operation,” Copeland said. “Once we get into operation, we are going to do some marketing and go up and down the Mississippi River corridor and let them know we are operational.”

Gilfoil said the dirt work at the site of the future slackwater port, located near the second Vidalia industrial park on Louisiana 131, is approximately 90 percent complete.

“We are building a (second) levee to go from the (Mississippi River) levee to the riverbank,” he said. “We are about five short of the height we need to be assured we will be flood free.”

While the river level itself has not posed a problem during construction, rainfall has essentially stopped construction since before Christmas, Gilfoil said.

“On the levee, I don’t think we have more than 10-days to two weeks to finish it,” he said. “Since the levee is sloped, the amount of dirt needed to go up a foot is less and less, so with each elevation it will take less time.”

Once the second levee is complete, the installation of a road, utilities, power poles and water lines can be completed regardless of the river level, Gilfoil said, and the installation of a conveyer system will follow.

The construction of the port is being financed through the Louisiana capital outlay program and the Delta Regional Authority. Womack and Sons of Harrisonburg are completing the current phase of work for approximately $2.15 million.

The State of Louisiana has committed a total of $10 million to the port project. The projected entire cost for the 40-acre project is approximately $39 million.