Posted on November 18, 2024
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced plans to invest nearly $580 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund 31 port improvement projects in 15 states and one U.S. territory. As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, this funding will help increase both capacity and efficiency at coastal seaports, Great Lakes ports, and inland river ports. The port improvement projects announced today will strengthen supply chain reliability, create workforce development opportunities, enhance freight efficiency, lower costs, reduce emissions, and improve the safety, reliability, and resilience of our ports.
“America’s ports are essential to our nation’s supply chains, and thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration, we have projects underway all across the country—from Long Beach to Milwaukee to Monroe—that are making it possible for our ports to move more goods each year and keep costs down for families,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “With the investments we’re announcing today, made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re building on this good work and funding more projects that will expand capacity, improve efficiency, and facilitate the quicker movement of goods at ports in more than a dozen states.”
The funding comes from MARAD’s Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP), which received $2.25 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve port infrastructure to meet the nation’s freight transportation needs. The program provides planning support, capital funding, and project management assistance to improve the capacity and efficiency of ports in both urban and rural areas.
“Modernizing America’s port infrastructure is essential to strengthening the multimodal network that supports our nation’s supply chain,” said Maritime Administrator Ann Phillips. “Approximately 2.3 billion short tons of goods move through U.S. waterways each year, and the benefits of developing port infrastructure extend far beyond the maritime sector. This funding enhances the flow and capacity of goods moved, bolstering supply chain resilience across all transportation modes, and addressing the environmental and health impacts on port communities.”
Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Biden-Harris Administration has announced investments in 580+ port and waterway projects to strengthen supply chain reliability, speed up the movement of goods, reduce the costs of everyday items, and lower carbon emissions.
DOT’s historic investments in port infrastructure are part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s effort to build more resilient supply chains. In February 2021, President Biden ordered a multi-agency approach to tackle supply chain disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and later launched the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force and the Council on Supply Chain Resilience to strengthen our supply chains. The Administration’s steady efforts to improve supply chains in the short-, medium-, and long-term have lowered costs for consumers and lowered inflation across the economy. Supply chains accounted for more than 80% of the fall in inflation seen in 2023 and brought inflation down faster than peer economies around the world. Recently, FLOW was used to help mitigate supply chain disruptions during the nearly three-month Port of Baltimore closure.
Select grants include:
Don Young Port of Alaska’s Cargo 1 Replacement Project ($50,000,000)
Anchorage, Alaska
The project will fund construction of a new general purpose cargo terminal at the Don Young Port of Alaska, which is essential to delivering goods to remote communities across the state. Work funded by the grant includes demolition of the existing terminal, construction of the trestle and wharf structure, and related landside facilities and utilities. The project will improve port efficiency and reliability by eliminating weight and operational limits placed on the current facility. The project improves resilience to both natural and man-made disasters by improving seismic stability, mitigating sea level rise and ice impacts, and supporting cargo movements at a strategic seaport.
Port of Oakland’s Outer Harbor Terminal Infrastructure Modernization Project ($49,517,100)
Oakland, California
The project includes wharf strengthening and other structural repairs including crane girder upgrades, added piling, beam strengthening, crane rail replacement, removing and replacing the old electrical bus bar system, and pavement overlay at Berths 24-26 within the Outer Harbor Terminal. The project addresses efficiency at the facility by allowing the port to host larger vessels at the same time to better respond to market demand on the west coast.
Georgia Ports Authority (GPA)’s Garden City Terminal Power Resiliency Project ($49,886,096)
Garden City, Georgia
The project will eliminate the need for the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal to draw electric power from local sources by creating a self-contained, on-terminal power distribution network fed from dedicated, GPA-owned substations. It also will construct redundant power feeds and backup power generation systems, replace overhead power lines with an underground network, and build a new GPA-owned substation to provide resiliency and increase the capacity of available electric power.
Hennepin Barge Terminal and Soybean Logistics Asset Project ($38,582,711)
Hennepin, Illinois
The project will build a new, roughly 700-foot loading dock, conveyor systems, and storage systems for soybean meal, soybean oil, and soybean hulls to more efficiently move these agricultural products.
Quonset Development Corporation’s Gateway Upgrades for Access, Resilience, and Development at the Port of Davisville Project ($11,250,000)
Davisville, Rhode Island
The project will relocate a port access roadway and port entrance gate, relocate and improve port operations buildings, construct new and expanded upland cargo laydown areas to allow for transport of large cargoes including offshore wind components, and install lighting, cameras, fencing, gates, and other security assets.
The Lummi Nation Fisherman’s Cove Dock Replacement Project ($10,979,375)
Bellingham, Washington
This project will fund the demolition and replacement of a pier at the Fisherman’s Cove Marina Dock at Gooseberry Point Waterfront on the Lummi Indian Reservation in Bellingham, Washington. The project will also include purchase of an electric lift and four Davit cranes.
View full list of awarded Port Infrastructure Development Program projects here.
