DALLAS -- The federal Maritime Administration is teaming up with shipping professionals and financial experts to help ports develop infrastructure projects that attract private and public capital investments.
The request for volunteers from the American Association of Port Authorities and the federal Department of Transportation unit said the guidelines will help local port authorities create investment-quality infrastructure development plans.
"Port authorities will benefit from having what amounts to a reference manual that details how to successfully attract public-private partnerships, apply for grants and other assistance," said Kurt Nagle, AAPA's president and chief executive officer.
State and federal budgets are tight, Nagle said, and government transportation efforts usually concentrate on transportation infrastructure designed to move people rather than cargo.
Jean Godwin, the AAPA executive vice president in charge of developing the project investment guidelines, said they will show port authorities how to attract funding for freight-handling projects.
"The components we envision for this toolkit will help ports make more compelling economic arguments to compete for government grants and private-sector funding opportunities," she said.
The guidelines will show port authorities how to ensure freight-related infrastructure projects are included in state transportation improvement plans and to position projects for discretionary grants such as the federal Transportation Infrastructure Generating Economic Recovery program, Godwin said.
The Maritime Administration and AAPA want to recruit technical experts from ports and firms involved in port planning, financing, and development for the effort, she said. A contractor will be hired to conduct focus groups and other meetings of the experts to develop the toolkit.
"By providing ports with guidance on how to clearly identify their future needs and proposing the most cost-effective, sustainable and efficient solutions for their projects, the result should be an 'investment grade' plan that helps develop needed infrastructure and facilities," Godwin said.
The guidelines will include suggestions for writing grant applications, Godwin said, as well as methods of analyzing the economic benefit of a project and examples of best practices.
The goal of the cooperative agreement between the Maritime Administration and AAPA signed in September is to develop tools that assist ports in obtaining funding in a variety of ways, Nagle said.
"By providing ports with guidance on how to clearly identify their future needs and proposing the most cost-effective, sustainable and efficient solutions for their projects, the result should be an 'investment-grade' plan that attracts outside investment," he said.
The most recent survey by AAPA predicts U.S. seaports and their private sector partners will spend $46 billion on infrastructure projects between 2012 and 2017, with $18.3 billion in public funds and $27.6 billion in private expenditures.
