Florida awards grants to expand rail, supply-chain capacity

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last week announced the award of $18 million in grants to help fund projects designed to increase supply chain capacity. The grants include $3.9 million to CSX and $3.7 million to Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad.

The awards specifically are the first of $100 million to be invested over five years. The first five recipients of the grants will create an additional 1.2 million tons of aggregate materials storage and enable more rail access to existing aggregate storage facilities. This material will support major projects under the Moving Florida Forward Initiative, according to a press release issued by DeSantis' office.

CSX will use its grant to help fund the design and construction of a new aggregate terminal in Plant City to accommodate 20 acres of storage capacity and 250,000 additional tons of aggregate annually. Florida Gulf & Atlantic will use its award to help fund the design and construction of a new aggregate terminal in Lake City to accommodate 200,000 additional tons of aggregate annually and 48 rail cars.

Also awarded was a $2.6 million grant to the Jacksonville Port Authority to begin the project development and environment phase to increase rail capacity and accommodate 15 acres of yard storage and an additional 240,000 tons of aggregate annually; and a $6.2 million grant to the Port of Tampa Bay to construct the Berth 218 aggregate terminal and additional 500,000 tons of limerock annually.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) identified priority investments to strengthen links in the supply chain and increase storage capacity to allow more aggregate material to be readily available for these critical FDOT projects, DeSantis administration officials said. Projects were prioritized based on overall project cost, proximity to aggregate needs statewide, and speed to project completion, ensuring the state can begin relying on these investments as soon as possible, they said.