The Virginian-Pilot
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The federal spending bill approved Saturday by the U.S. Senate might provide an early holiday present for the Port of Virginia: $26.9 million for expansion of Craney Island in Portsmouth.
It still needs President Barack Obama's approval. The House passed the omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2012 on Friday.
The expansion would generate more than 1,100 jobs immediately and 54,000 long-term, U.S. Sen. Jim Webb said in a statement. It also would "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 and Mark Warner, Virginia's other U.S. senator, who had pushed for federal funding for the Craney project, announced the appropriation.
Warner described the expansion as "a critical infrastructure project that will help support Virginia's economic competitiveness for decades."
The signing last year of a 20-year-lease for APM Terminals' facility reduced the urgency for the Port Authority to develop a cargo terminal at Craney. But port officials have said they hope to open a terminal at Craney by 2030.
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Hey VP
The article doesn't say what exactly the money is going to be used for. Maybe that would require 5-10 minutes of research. Is that too much to ask from a newspaper?
For Example
What will those 1100 immediate jobs be doing? Who do I apply to? The article says immediate, so I assume you mean sometime in 2012.
Who owns the port?
Wasn't this an issue about two years ago, where the port is foriegn owned or leased(I think it was leased by a company in Iran), and that it posses a threat to our national security because they have access to our containers, and ships.
I would like to know way more about this, especially if we are planning to provide funding for it.
Will Make Area 3rd Largest Deep Water Port on East Coast!
Tea Pot should be Boiling at this corporate welfare...
BUT, It's an investment and more container ships will have closer delivery and more access to the mainland.
Would you turn the money away?
Cool!
Thanks for that valuable info regarding long term plans, though it's really $27,000,000.00 to pump out mud. I hate to see good money go to waste. LOL!
Drop in the bucket.
Cargo-handling capacity of the port isn't the only reason for the project -- expanding the dredge material disposal makes it a lot more cost effective to keep area waterways dredged, which makes much of the area's economic activity possible. Also, when the highway connection to Craney Island is complete it will make the case for the building the Patriot's Crossing/Uptown Tunnel a lot stronger.
That said, it will unfortunately take considerably more than the amount of funding that has been allocated for next year to complete the project. According to http://www.craneyisland.info/benefits.html "Four phases of work between the years 2013 and 2032 will require investments in materials and labor of approximately $1.1 billion."
Need?
The Port has one of their two Portsmouth ports sitting unused. I agree that looking ahead for future business is not a bad thing, but when you are currently not using at least 50% of your assets, spending that kind of money in this kind of economy raises some questions.
Reserve capacity may appear
Reserve capacity may appear a bit wasteful, but I suppose it makes more economic sense than having both its Portsmouth terminals in half-use, or for scaling NIT, PMT, APMT, and NNMT all back to 75% or so.
Still, seeing it empty makes one consider alternative uses. Driving over Pinners Point the other day had me thinking the space would be ideal for a terminal for a vehicle ferry to the Navy Base, Newport News, or even Williamsburg. It already has deep-water access, highway access, large open paved space for staging cars (or for walk-on passengers to park), and several entry lanes with booths to collect fares. Could probably operate it for a century for what they're planning to dump into the Midtown Tunnel.