DALLAS -- Replacing and repairing the crumbling roads, rail, tunnels, and bridges linking seaports to the surface transportation network will cost at least $28.9 billion over the next 10 years, the American Association of Port Authorities warned in an economic study released Tuesday.
"The nation's unsurpassed goods movement network needs immediate and significant investment in the arteries that carry freight to and from its seaports," the AAPA said.
Kurt Nagle, president of the association that represents 83 of the 150 deep-draft commercial ports in the U.S., said that funding the "first and final mile" land-side connection is vital to the long-term ability of ports to efficiently move cargo and create jobs.
"While ports and their private-sector partners are investing heavily into their facilities as international trade continues to grow, many of these connectors are antiquated, in disrepair, and are creating congestion issues that need to be urgently addressed," Nagle said.
The ports’ land connections total only 1,200 miles of the 57,000-mile national highway system, but 99% of U.S. international trade passes through them, he said.
U.S. seaport activity last year generated $4.6 trillion of total economic impact in the U.S. and generated $321 billion of federal, state, and local tax revenues, the AAPA study found.
"The fact is that while over a quarter of the U.S. economy is accounted for by port cargo activity, freight connections to our ports are crumbling, putting our economy at risk and reducing America's competitiveness in global markets," Nagle said.
A third of the ports surveyed for the report said congestion at their land-side connections over the past 10 years has caused port activity to decline by 25% or more.
Nearly a third of the ports expect to spend at least $100 million to upgrade local intermodal connectors through 2025, with another 18% contending a minimum investment of $50 million will be needed.
Ports in the Pacific Northwest have $6.9 billion of freight-handling projects under way or planned by 2025, with $6.5 billion of projects slated for ports in California, Hawaii, and the Commonwealth of Saipan, the AAPA survey found. Gulf Coast ports plan $4.1 billion of projects, with $6.4 billion planned by North Atlantic ports and $4.6 billion by South Atlantic ports. Great Lakes port freight-handling projects are estimated at $332.7 million.
The Transportation Department seems reluctant to provide federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loans to eligible multimodal freight projects, with only 8% of respondents reporting successful TIFIA applications, according to the ports surveyed.
However, federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants totaling $1.9 billion have helped fund 35 port-supported freight projects since 2009, the AAPA said.
More than a third of the ports are using or plan to use public-private partnerships to fund infrastructure projects.
"The significant use by U.S. ports of P3 financing suggest there is additional opportunity to rein in and leverage private-sector resources in building projects that impact the freight network," the AAPA said.
Meanwhile, federal funding for projects at ports and other freight-handling facilities would be provided by a transportation infrastructure trust fund under a House bill outlined Tuesday at a Capitol Hill news conference by Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif.
The measure, H.R. 1308, would provide $8 billion a year for freight-related infrastructure projects, with a focus on multimodal projects and projects that help relieve bottlenecks. The federal trust fund would be supported by a dedicated 1% waybill fee on the transportation cost of goods.
The revenue would be divided between a formula-based program with funding distributed to states based on their existing freight infrastructure and a competitive grant program for state, regional, and local freight transportation projects.
"This isn't a bold step," Lowenthal said at the news conference. "This is just common sense."
There's a federal component to local road projects that provide better port access, said Rick Cameron, managing director of planning and environmental affairs at the Port of Long Beach, Calif.
"Nearly half the containers that leave the Port have destinations or origins east of the Rockies," he said.
