Bay State ports eyeing upgrades

Ports in New Bedford and Fall River are anxious to join the emerging America’s Marine Highway and say the cargo it brings would create jobs and spur economic development. To kick-start development, New Bedford has asked for $36.4 million in federal money to upgrade its facilities. And Fall River is searching for a way to pay for improvements after the commonwealth decided not to submit a grant application for the port.
In New Bedford, officials want to create an intermodal transportation hub using money from the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program. The money, if awarded, would pay to upgrade a terminal, rehabilitate a rail link to the state pier, upgrade roadways, purchase cranes, dredge and extend the bulkhead. Port officials say they could complete the work within two years of receiving the TIGER money, which would be combined with $82 million in other federal money and state money.
“That would really give us all the tools that we need to bring us online as a strategic player in a number of markets, from the import-export side, from the commercial-shipping side and this emerging renewable energy sector,” Port Director Kristin Decas said.
The port says the upgrades would create 1,271 immediate jobs, 948 long-term jobs and $56.7 million in annual economic impact. The money would also grow the utilization of the port from 10 percent to 100 percent and increase the economic output 74 percent to $400 million, the application says.
Besides the economic impact, Decas said the upgrades would position the port as a hub for the emerging renewable energy industry. She sees the port receiving turbine parts either via barge or truck and then sending them to their final destinations. The port says that alone could generate 150 jobs and $7 million in wages. The concept is similar to what officials in Rhode Island envision for Quonset Business Park and its Port of Davisville. And while Decas said she saw a “healthy competition” between the two, the industry was big enough for two players.
“We’re a proactive port and we think there’s an opportunity here, a tremendous opportunity. So we’re going to explore it,” Decas said. “We have a great potential to serve this industry and we want to capitalize on that.”
The immediate focus, however, is joining the Marine Highway, otherwise known as short-sea shipping. Champions of the highway see it as a network of small ships ferrying cargo to larger ships traveling up and down the East Coast. Those larger ships would then transfer cargo to small ships, which would ferry it into ports. Supporters say it would take trucks off America’s highways and reduce pollution.
Separately, New Bedford is also seeking $24.1 million to repair and extend its piers to accommodate more vessels. About 460 vessels call the port home, which is the largest fishing port in America as measured by product landed. Officials say they have berths to accommodate just 120 vessels and the overcrowding jeopardizes the port’s ability to keep the vessels and poses safety concerns as they are rafted together.
“The lack of berthing space represents the largest threat to the future economic security of the city of New Bedford,” according to the grant application, which notes the city of 93,000 already faces a 14 percent unemployment rate, well above the national rate of 10.2 percent.
The project calls for upgrading the piers, building a barge to pump out sewage from visiting vessels and adding about 40 berthing spots. The port says the project would create 254 immediate jobs, 795 long-term jobs and $51 million in annual economic impact
The Davisville and Providence ports also applied for TIGER money, with their focus on projects that would position them to join the Marine Highway. The three ports join a pool of more than 1,400 applications seeking $1.5 billion in federal money. Not in that applicant pool is the Port of Fall River, after Massachusetts decided not to submit a $40 million grant application for the port.
Fall River Office of Economic Development Executive Director Kenneth Fiola Jr. said the money would have paid for a new terminal and associated upgrades that could better accommodate short-sea shipping.
“We’re continuing to move forward regardless of the TIGER grant funding, but obviously we’re in a situation where we’re in sort of a holding pattern with identifying funds for the new facility,” Fiola said.
Gov. Patrick’s administration decided not to submit a request for Fall River because it determined the project was not “shovel ready,” a requirement for projects that want stimulus funding, said Alethea Pieters, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Recovery and Reinvestment Office.
Instead, the administration submitted four requests for TIGER money, including a $71.4 million proposal to construct an intermodal facility in New Bedford (separate from the $36.4 million project requested by the city) to integrate local bus services and shuttles, ferry service to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and regional passenger rail. It also put forward a $146.5 million proposal to improve bus service in a Boston neighborhood; a $25.6 million request to pay for water infrastructure improvements at the Boston Harbor Islands and a $50.6 million request to improve water transportation between Boston and nearby seaside communities. Together, the requests total $294 million.
“The bottom line is that we ended up recommending the four strongest proposals,” Pieters said. •