US port executives found some relief in recent moves in Washington to improve funding for desperately needed maintenance and expansion work, but to their dismay the money that US lawmakers are lining up is nowhere near the levels required.

The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA), which represents 140 seaport authorities in the US, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, has welcomed the passage of the Americas Water Infrastructure Act through the US Congress this month. The bill authorizes investment in US ports and waterways. Among other things it clears the way for navigation channel improvement projects at the ports of Seattle, Galveston and San Juan.

Earlier this year ports celebrated the passage of an omnibus funding package that provided some much-needed fresh funding for a six-month period. It tripled funds for the TIGER and BUILD programmes to US$1.5 billion and added US$789 million to the pot allocated to the Army Corps of Engineers, which conducts all channel deepening and maintenance work. Furthermore, it nearly doubled funding for the US Maritime Administration to $980 million. The organization looks after the productivity, efficiency and safety of the US ports and intermodal transportation system and runs programmes like the Marine Highways scheme.

Welcome as these developments have been, they fall far short of the money needed, according to the AAPA.

“More must be done to ensure that multimodal goods movement projects have adequate resources to produce efficient and timely results,” said AAPA president and CEO Kurt Nagle.

The port organization has argued that US$66 billion of federal investment in port-related infrastructure work is needed over the next decade. It called for US$33.8 billion in waterside improvements and over US$32 billion for landside developments.

A survey released by the AAPA in July identified a need for over US$20 billion to be spent on multimodal port and rail access over the period. Its authors reported that 67% of respondents pointed to funding and financing issues as the biggest obstacles to getting rail projects going that would create or improve access to their cargo infrastructure. Grade rail crossings, height-restricted overpasses and tunnels near the ports constrain cargo capacity at nearly one-third of the ports that participated, according to the AAPA survey.

On the waterside, the maintenance of navigation channels has been below requirements, the AAPA has warned. It estimates that US$27.6 billion will be needed to maintain navigation channels over the coming decade.

Lack of funding for dredging and other work carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers has a knock-on effect on other sorely needed infrastructure improvement work, the organization has warned. Plans for investments worth US$155 million hinge on the completion of channel maintenance work, and they are at risk if the Army Corps of Engineers does not receive adequate funding, the AAPA argues.

The organization has urged the authorities to keep funding for the TIGER programme at the currently elevated level in the coming year. It also asked for caps on INFRA grants to be removed. These limit the programme to projects that address highway access.

Moreover, the AAPA stressed that resources of the US Customs & Border Protection agency are seriously stretched, which is affecting staffing levels at marine gateways. The budget for the current year included US$7.6 million to hire 328 new CBP officers altogether. According to the AAPA, 500 new officers are needed every year in the maritime sector alone.

Above all, the AAPA wants to shift funding to a more sustained footing than the current haggling process in Washington. In a hearing before a Senate subcommittee this summer, Nagle urged senators to move in that direction.

“The United States must establish a sustainable system for funding channel maintenance over the long term,” he stressed. The AAPA has long advocated that the proceeds from the Harbor Maintenance Tax should be fully allocated to American seaports.

However, the legislation that came out of Congress this month makes no reference to the Harbor Maintenance Tax nor to any sustainable system of funding.

By Ian Putzger

Correspondent | Toronto