Top Three: Port Development Grants

Last April, in an executive order titled “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” President Donald Trump committed the federal government to restoring commercial shipbuilding and other maritime industries in the U.S. The order was meant to serve the country’s economic and national security interests. Last month, the Maritime Administration (MARAD), a division of the Department of Transportation, announced $774 million in grants to support infrastructure development at U.S. ports in support of those goals.

The grants support dredging to deepen berths, building new floating docks, reconstructing seawalls, and improving railway infrastructure. Below are the recipients of the three biggest grants from the recent list.

• Guam: The recipient of the biggest grant in the recent MARAD award is also the farthest from the mainland United States. The Port Authority of Guam will receive $59 million to commission, fabricate, and install three new gantry cranes at the port in the village of Piti, about 4,000 miles west of Hawaii and 1,500 miles south of Tokyo. 
• Georgia: The Georgia Ports Authority will receive $53 million to complete a National Environmental Policy Act evaluation for a new lay berth at the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal on the Atlantic coast. A lay berth is a mooring area for large container ships that are idling or undergoing maintenance. 
• Houston: Port Houston will receive $48 million to build a new container yard at the Bayport Container Terminal on the Gulf Coast. The Port of Houston is the biggest port in the country in terms of total annual cargo tonnage.