About one-fifth of TIGER V grants target port projects, AAPA says

The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) V grants announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) last week include funds for 12 major port and related projects, according to the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA).

The grants for the 12 projects total $103.7 million, or about 21.9 percent of the total dollars the USDOT allotted for 52 transportation projects, AAPA officials said in a press release.

The TIGER V grants for port projects and their recipients are:
• $14 million to the Jackson County Port Authority for an intermodal improvement project at the Port of Pascagoula, Miss., that involves upgrading a connection with Mississippi Export Railroad;
• $10 million to Diamond State Port Corp. to rehabilitate a wharf at the Port of Wilmington, Del., that was built in 1923;
• $10 million to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority to rebuild and expand a 28-acre general cargo dock at the Port of Duluth-Superior, Minn., and connect it to existing rail and road infrastructure;
• $10 million to the Port of Houston Authority to extend the Bayport Terminal's wharf;
• $10 million to the Maryland Port Administration to expand handling capacity at the Fairfield Marine Terminal at the Port of Baltimore and construct a rail intermodal facility to handle expanded automotive exports and imports;
• $6 million to the Eastport Port Authority to replace a dilapidated breakwater at the Port of Eastport, Maine, and two of its pier sections;
• $1.5 million to the Port Of Oswego, N.Y., to complete an East Terminal intermodal connector; and
• $1.48 million to the Port of Garibaldi, Ore., to revitalize a wharf.
   
In addition, four port-related infrastructure projects will receive the following TIGER V grants:
• $13.75 million for a south Florida freight- and passenger-rail enhancement project that calls for better linking two major freight-rail corridors;
• $11.96 million for the Delta Frame Bridge rehabilitation along Interstate 64 in Rockbridge County, Va.;
• $10 million for a CSX Transportation/Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority project aimed at separating passenger and freight trains on SEPTA's West Trenton Regional Rail Line; and
• $5 million for the Port of Tucson's container export rail facility to spur an inland port in Arizona.

Although funding for port-related infrastructure received a higher priority than in the four previous TIGER grant rounds, 25 percent of future grants should be provided for seaport-related infrastructure since ports are one of the four eligible areas for the program, along with highways/bridges, transit and rail, said AAPA President and Chief executive Officer Kurt Nagle.

"[We] also continue to advocate for a permanent authorization of a TIGER program," he said.