Sens. Webb, Warner seek $27.4M for Craney Island

Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner announced Friday that $27.4 million for the expansion of Craney Island has been included in the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations bill for the next fiscal year.

The money, however, isn't in the bag yet. Congress has not appropriated any funding for fiscal year 2012, which starts Oct. 1.

"The expansion project at the Port of Virginia is a critical infrastructure project that will help support Virginia's economic competitiveness for decades," Warner said.

"The expansion will allow the Virginia Port Authority to nearly double its marine terminal capacity to meet the anticipated increase in shipped goods to and from international ports," Webb added.

Jeff Keever, the Virginia Port Authority's senior deputy director, lauded the senators' efforts to secure funding for the port project. "Their support for Craney Island over the years has paved the way for strategic infrastructure improvements and job creation," he said in a statement.

With the signing of a 20-year lease for APM Terminals' state-of-the-art facility in July 2010, the Port Authority is positioned to handle about 4 million 20-foot cargo containers a year, nearly double the 2.1 million shipped through Hampton Roads in 2007, the peak year before the recession hobbled global trade.

The added capacity has eased pressure on the Port Authority to develop a massive container terminal on Craney Island in Portsmouth, which is projected to cost $2.2 billion.

"Obviously, one of the things that this does is it delays our need to fully develop Craney Island by a matter of many years," state Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton said last year, though he added that site development will continue there.

Joe Dorto, president and CEO of Virginia International Terminals Inc., the private company that runs the Port Authority's facilities, said recently that the APM lease "puts off the need for Craney Island till probably 2030."

While the port might not need the Craney terminal soon, he said, it will take 15 years to build up the groundwork to support it.

The cost to prepare the 600-acre site - building levees and filling them - is projected at $700 million, which will be split 50-50 with the federal government. The terminal would be built atop a new cell for dredge disposal on the eastern side of the Craney Island Dredged Material Management Area, operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Construction of the dikes already has begun.

The fact that the federal government is sharing the cost of preparing the site is a big issue, Dorto said.

"If we stop building it, the federal government stops the matching funds," he said. "So, you know, it's a very expensive proposition, and the fact that you have the government giving you some money to do it, you hate to lose that opportunity."

Robert McCabe, (757) 446-2327, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com