$3M for Little Rock port in federal plan

Buttigieg doles out $241M in grants to open up supply chain

Ship-to-shore cranes load and unload containers from a cargo ship at the Georgia Ports Authority Garden City Terminal on Dec. 17, 2021, in Savannah, Ga.
(AP/Stephen B. Morton)
Ship-to-shore cranes load and unload containers from a cargo ship at the Georgia Ports Authority Garden City Terminal on Dec. 17, 2021, in Savannah, Ga. (AP/Stephen B. Morton)


WASHINGTON -- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is awarding more than $241 million in grants to bolster U.S ports, part of the Biden administration's near-term plan to address America's clogged supply chain with infrastructure improvements to speed the flow of goods.

The Port of Little Rock received a little more than $3 million to upgrade moorings that are used to store barges along the Arkansas River. The port will be expected to match that amount with $700,000, said Bryan Day, the port's executive director.

The transportation money is being made available immediately to 25 projects in 19 states. Next year, the amount of money for port improvements will nearly double to $450 million in grants annually for five years under President Joe Biden's new infrastructure law.

"U.S. maritime ports play a critical role in our supply chains," Buttigieg said with Thursday's announcement. "These investments in our nation's ports will help support American jobs, efficient and resilient operations and faster delivery of goods to the American people."

Biden on Wednesday touted the coming grants as one of a series of efforts that will alleviate supply bottlenecks over the short and long term.

"Earlier this fall we heard a lot of dire warnings about supply chain problems leading to a crisis around the holidays, so we acted," Biden said. "We brought together business and labor leaders to solve problems and the much predicted crisis didn't occur. Packages are moving. Gifts are being delivered. Shelves are not empty."

[DOCUMENT: See the complete list of projects receiving federal funds » arkansasonline.com/1224ports/]

The grant money includes $52.3 million to help expand rail capacity at the port in Long Beach, Calif., with a new locomotive facility, 10,000-foot support track and extensions of five existing tracks to speed up freight movement while cutting down the number of truck trips required to do that.

The Port of Little Rock project will replace 15 deadman ground anchor moorings with steel monopile dolphin moorings and install another 32 dolphin moorings at other locations along 3,000 feet of river bank on port property.

The deadman anchors are big concrete blocks the size of a small car buried in the riverbank with huge chains tied to them to hold the barges. Storing barges using deadman anchors are unsafe, especially when the water is fast, because the the barges are too close to the bank and risk getting damaged, Day said.

The monopile dolphins, by contrast, are pylons -- pipes filled with concrete -- driven 40 feet into the riverbed.

The new mooring system will allow the port to store 20% more barges, or up to 100 barges, Day said.

The port also will be able to store the barges more efficiently, meaning that they will be stored closer to the port and it will take less time to return them to the docks, he said.

Port officials applied for the grant based on a study recommendation about upgrading the mooring system. "It gave us cost estimates, conceptual plans, the reasoning why we need to do this," Day said.

"We're super excited about it," he said. "We've invested a lot in our railroads and our docks, but we haven't done anything in the river in a while. This is a big deal."

He also was glad the port could tap a resource like the U.S Department of Transportation grant program aimed at ports large and small.

"Port infrastructure is very expensive," he said. "It is hard for us to it on our own."

Day said he expects the engineering to be finalized by spring and construction to begin next summer.

Other recipients include:

• Portsmouth, Va., $20 million, to help build out a supply chain for the offshore wind industry.

• Brunswick, Ga., $14.6 million, to build a fourth berth for cargo ships at Colonel's Island Terminal.

• Houston, $18.3 million, to accommodate more export and import cargo by increasing storage capacity at the Bayport Container Terminal.

• Tell City, Ind., $1.6 million, to construct a 40-foot diameter pier on the Ohio River that can be used direct barge-to-truck unloading of cargo.

• Delcambre, La., $2 million, for dock restoration and climate resiliency.

Buttigieg's announcement seeks to build upon recent moves by the Transportation Department to reduce supply chain congestion, such as by allowing port authorities to redirect leftover money from grant projects. For example, the Georgia Ports Authority is using $8 million to convert its inland facilities for the port of Savannah into container yards, freeing up dock space and speeding the flow of goods to their final destinations. Buttigieg last Friday toured the port, which his department says has seen the number of ships waiting at anchor fall from over 30 to six last week, while the number of long dwelling containers has been cut in half.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration sought to reduce delays by working to move major ports to 24/7 operations. The administration also is seeking to improve working recruitment and retention in the trucking industry.

Still, supply chain issues linger, and the steps taken by the administration have shown that there is no quick fix to the problems that have been hurting smaller businesses and causing consumers to face higher prices. The Transportation Department said Thursday that the projects receiving grants vary widely in readiness to get off the ground and it could take months before consumers can start to feel the effects from the improvements.

Information for this article was contributed by Hope Yen of The Associated Press and Noel Oman of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.


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