Port officially a member of DOT's Marine Highway project
The Port of Brownsville got word just last month that its container-on-barge operation with Port Manatee, Fla., was among only eight projects selected by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to be part of the country’s Marine Highway initiative, aimed at transporting more cargo via water to relieve congestion on U.S. interstates.
LaHood in April, quoted in the Journal of Commerce, called the Marine Highway program the most recent phase of efforts to bolster the U.S. maritime economy.
He said the program would ease highway gridlock by moving more of the nation’s cargo to its underused waterways, noting that moving goods via water is also better for the environment.
Now comes official confirmation from the Maritime Administration under the U.S. Department of Transportation.
H. Keith Lesnick, the Maritime Administration’s associate administrator for Intermodal System Development, recently informed Brownsville port director and CEO Eddie Campirano of the port’s formal designation as a "Marine Highway Project."
The ports’ application for Marine Highway designation was titled the Cross Gulf Container Expansion Project.
The aim is to build up the existing container-on-barge service, which currently calls at the Port of Brownsville every 10 days. Brownsville and Port Manatee officials have dubbed the 926-mile sea route across the Gulf of Mexico "M-10."
Lesnick said the Marine Highway designation means the DOT will provide direct assistance to the Cross Gulf project, including helping promote the project among "public and private industry stakeholders," getting access to property and equipment, and helping develop "landside infrastructure" — docks and such.
"We can also conduct research to further the project’s development, and work to remove impediments which might obstruct the launch of a new (service) or expansion of an existing service," Lesnick wrote in a letter to Campirano.
The DOT can also help the port find federal funding for the project.
One of the perks of Marine Highway designation is that the Cross Gulf project is automatically eligible to apply for DOT Marine Highway grants — including an initial $7 million grant available now.
The Cross Gulf project is also in competition with other Marine Highway projects around the country for a piece of $600 million in TIGER II funds. TIGER stands for "Transportation Infrastructure Generating Economic Recovery."
The grants are part of the nation’s economic stimulus program set out in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. According to Lesnick, TIGER II grants will be awarded "on an accelerated basis" this month.
