Ports of Alabama and Mississippi are enjoying advancement of significant infrastructure initiatives, including with the help of federal funding.
The ports of Mobile, Pascagoula and Gulfport – within 80 miles of each other along the U.S. Gulf Coast in between the Florida Panhandle and Louisiana – are each moving forward with new facilities for efficient handling of diverse cargos.
Alabama State Port Authority
The Alabama State Port Authority’s Port of Mobile is busy augmenting its expanded container terminal facility, operated by APM Terminals, with additional major infrastructure developments getting under way, while Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey in late February proposed a statewide infrastructure rebuilding initiative to include financing Mobile ship channel enhancements.
MTC Logistics last fall unveiled plans to invest $60 million in buying property adjacent to the port’s container terminal and building a 12-million-cubic-foot, temperature-controlled distribution facility for handling imports and exports. The facility is designed to include about 40,000 racked pallet positions. MTC already operates temperature-controlled facilities in Baltimore and Jessup, Maryland, and Wilmington, Delaware.
Earlier last year, the ASPA inked an agreement with AutoMobile International Terminal – a joint venture of Terminal Zárate S.A. and SAAM Puertos S.A. – for development and operation of a roll-on/roll-off terminal and vehicle processing center. The $60 million, 57-acre facility, served by five Class I railroads, is being funded in part by a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant, as well as a grant related to civil penalties in connection with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident.
Port of Pascagoula
About 40 miles southwest of Mobile, just into Mississippi, the Jackson County Port Authority’s Port of Pascagoula is continuing to advance some big infrastructure projects of its own, also with a boost from TIGER funding – in its case $14 million from a 2013 grant award.
The Jackson County port is looking forward to completion by mid-2019 of two rail projects – one adding 3 miles of new mainline and 5,000 feet of side tracks, as well as a separate endeavor to directly link the north-south Mississippi Export Railroad short line with the east-west mainline of CSX. At the same time, rail improvements into the port’s Bayou Casotte terminals, including a new wood pellet export facility, are getting under way. The work is part of an overall $54 million undertaking to beef up Pascagoula terminal infrastructure.
Port of Pascagoula officials report that the port’s levels of lumber and steel exports into the Caribbean and Central America have increased significantly in the past year, while this year is seeing a return after a long hiatus of woodpulp imports and exports via the port.
Mississippi State Port Authority
Another 40 miles to the west, the Mississippi State Port Authority’s Port of Gulfport is rejoicing the long-awaited completion of its federally backed restoration project following destruction wrought in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. More than $528 million in construction contracts have facilitated rebuilding and upgrading of nearly all the port’s west terminal, including a new 300,000-square-foot dry and chilled storage facility to support such longtime tenants as Dole, Chiquita and Crowley Maritime Corp.
Additional terminal expansion is now being pursued. Permitting already has been secured for a 282-acre dredge-and-fill program, while a letter of intent was executed last year with Turkey-based Yilport Holding A.S. for potential location of the global terminal operator at the Port of Gulfport, along with commensurate facility investments.
MSPA officials are continuing to seek approvals to bring the Gulfport channel to a depth of as many as 47 feet from its present authorized depth of 36 feet, and they are ballyhooing the completion in mid-2018 of the Port of Gulfport Marine Research Center, home to The University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Ocean Science and Technology.
