New terminal would give Green Bay port expanded rail access
6/15/2023
By Grace Renderman, Associate Editor
If all the pieces of the funding puzzle remain in place, officials at the Port of Green Bay hope to start work next year on a new facility that would provide expanded rail access.
The port won four federal and state grants totaling $30 million — including a $10.1 million grant from the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) landed in October 2022 — that will support the decommissioning and repurposing of the Pulliam coal-fired power plant into a “state-of-the-art port facility” that will include CN access at the property line, says Port Director Dean Haen.
The project calls for repair and extension of 2,000 feet of track on a CN rail spur with three switch installations. Other activities include engineering services; site remediation; construction of new dock walls and bulkheads; dredging; construction of stormwater collection and treatment facilities; asphalt resurfacing; and construction of a new office building.
To date, the project design is 30% complete. Port officials hope to secure permits and release construction bids to potential contractors in 2024, Haen says. Construction would begin sometime in 2024 or 2025, he adds.
An aerial marking shows where the terminal project would be located on the port property. Port of Green BayThe total project cost hasn't been determined, but an October 2022 estimate was $25 million, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. Since then, labor and materials cost increases have stretched the budget, tightening the project’s feasibility, Haen says. If necessary, the port would hold off on the rail access project immediately and instead wait for a better opportunity.
“If we don't have enough money with the cost increases that everyone is experiencing, the first thing we would cut would be rail access because there are other grants out there that we could then pursue to cover the rail aspect of it,” Haen says.
Last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the port to highlight the importance of infrastructure projects taking place at Green Bay and other ports nationwide. He was joined by MARAD Administrator Ann Phillips, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich and other local officials.
“This city and this region [are] so key to Midwest commerce and so well positioned because of [their] infrastructure," Buttigieg said at a press conference hosted by the port May 24. "A major highway just half a mile away, you got that rail line that connects right into the port [and] you’ve got links into the St. Lawrence Seaway, a shipping route that can get goods from the Midwest out all around the world.”
The new terminal is the first to be built at the port in nearly a century, Buttigieg said in a video taken during a plant tour.
“This port is essential for moving bulk goods, including things very important to industry, from crude iron to aggregate that goes into cement and asphalt,” he said. “It’s going to be good news for the entire country to see more and more of these ports get the support they need.”
In addition to CN, the port is served by 14 terminal operators, most of which have rail access, Haen says.
