The United States Maritime Administration (Marad) will invest heavily in port infrastructure to strengthen the supply chain following significant backlogs in the country’s ports in recent years.
Marad announced this week that it would inject an additional $662 million in grants during the 2023 financial year under its Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) as part of President Joe Biden’s Administration’s commitment to strengthen the supply chains.
The administration said the investment would be sunk into modernising ports with the aim of strengthening supply chains for future generations, to reduce shipping time, costs, and the shelf price of goods for US consumers.
“America’s ports play a central role in our supply chains,” said US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“With today’s announcement, we are helping make our ports safer, more efficient, and more reliable - strengthening supply chains, reducing costs for the American people, and positioning us for economic success,” he said.
The grants are in addition to more than $700m awarded in 2022 and more than three times the $2 300m grants invested in ports in 2020.
The Marad programme allocates discretionary grants to states, port authorities, local governments, and other entities to develop key port-related infrastructure projects. The agencies compete for the annual grants to help fund projects focused on improving the safety, efficiency and reliability of the movement of goods through the port supply chain.
“This funding will support efforts by ports and industry stakeholders to improve port and related freight infrastructure to meet the Nation’s freight transportation needs and ensure our port infrastructure can support future growth,” said maritime administrator Ann Phillips.
Projects that have recently received grant funding include the installation of fast charging stations and other port electrification improvements, as well as intermodal port expansion projects and the development of a scalable plan for transitioning to zero carbon emission technologies.
The deadline for applications for port project grants is April 28.
Meanwhile, the Federal Highway Administration is making $160m available under its Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities programme to test, evaluate, and deploy projects that reduce port-related emissions from idling trucks.
