SPI Insights

Washington, D.C. – To help stem the nation’s supply chain issues, the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) will award more than $241 million in discretionary grant funding for 25 projects to improve port facilities.

MARAD’s Port Infrastructure Development Program supports efforts by ports and industry stakeholders to improve facility and freight infrastructure by providing planning and capital financing and project management assistance to improve ports’ capacity and efficiency.

Projects that were awarded grants include coastal seaports, Great Lakes ports, and inland river ports.

More than $52 million in MARAD funding will go to an early rail enhancement project in Long Beach, California. America’s Green Gateway Phase 1 includes a new locomotive facility, extension of the east rail yard, and extension of the west rail yard. The project will add a 10,000-foot support track within a critical supply chain corridor, construct a new support facility for 24 locomotives, add three new yard tracks, and extend five existing tracks to increase operational efficiency.

The Port of Albany will receive $29.5 million to construct the necessary infrastructure to develop 81 acres of a vacant industrial area along the Hudson River immediately south of the existing Port District into an offshore wind tower manufacturing port. The project also will redevelop 14.5 vacant acres inside the port.

South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in New York was awarded $24.97 million for its 35th Street Pier Expansion Project. Efforts will involve adding a barge berth and a crane pad on the western end of the 35th Street Pier. The wharf will be designed to accommodate 400-foot-long barges.

At the Port of Brunswick in Georgia, $14.68 million in federal funding will go to improvements at Colonel’s Island Berth No. 4. The project will construct a fourth roll-on/roll-off vessel berth at the terminal in order to add needed capacity at the nation’s second busiest roll-on/roll-off cargo port.

Going forward, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will provide $450 million annually in funding for the MARAD program for fiscal years 2022 through 2026, or a total of $2.25 billion.