The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has recently awarded $241 million to 25 projects in 19 states and one U.S. territory for improvements on the nation's ports, including coastal seaports, Great Lakes ports and inland river ports.
The projects, which will receive the funding immediately, include a improving rail at the Port of Long Beach, California, expanding the Bayport Container Terminal in Houston, Texas and increasing capacity at the Colonel's Island Berth in Brunswick, Georgia, a DOT press release said.
“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,” Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said in the release.
The discretionary grants are provided through the Maritime Administration’s (MARAD) Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP), which aids ports and industry stakeholders trying to improve their infrastructure and “ensure the Nation’s freight transportation needs, present and future, are met,” the release said. PIDP has previously awarded $492 million for 32 projects nationwide.
Eliminating backlogs at the nation's ports is one of the administration goals in fighting inflation and product shortages, a report by The Associated Press said.
“Earlier this fall we heard a lot of dire warnings about supply chain problems leading to a crisis around the holidays, so we acted,” President Biden said, as reported by The Associated Press. “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.”
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in 2021 will provide $450 million annually for the improvements program until 2026, the release said. This is a total investment of $2.25 billion, which “is roughly the same amount of federal funding provided to ports under DOT-administered grant programs since the DOT began providing funding to ports in 2009.”
