CHARLESTON, S.C. — The $300 million job to deepen the Charleston Harbor shipping channel has already moved to the water.

For the past several weeks, Coastal Carolina University scientists have been methodically surveying areas near the existing shipping channel to record what's on the bottom. They are looking for historical artifacts and getting an idea of what the soils are like in areas that would be widened and deepened.

The work is part of nearly $2 million in contracts for harbor studies recently awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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The State Ports Authority wants the harbor channel deepened from 45 feet to 50 feet so the port can handle larger container ships that will routinely call when the Panama Canal is expanded.

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