COOS BAY, Ore. — The Port of Coos Bay, Ore., is once again making a bid for a U.S. Department of Transportation Mega Grant, after its bid for an intermodal project was not selected a year ago.
The project seeks to create a new intermodal gateway capable of handling 1.2 million containers per year. Oregon Public Broadcasting station KLCC reports the port is seeking $800 million, which would help fund deepening and widening the Coos Bay Federal Navigational Channel and upgrades to the Coos Bay Rail Line. The third facet of the project, construction of a rail-served intermodal terminal, would be funded by the port’s private partner, NorthPoint Development.
Margaret Barber, the port’s director of external affairs and development, told KLCC that the port’s grant application was ranked 13th last year, with nine projects receiving funding. The resubmitted application is seeking less than last year’s application, which was for $1.2 billion. She also said the project is somewhat modeled after the Port of Prince Rupert, the British Columbia port that has become a major source of traffic for Canadian National, in that “all the traffic or nearly all of it is going to be going out by rail.”
The channel project would include deepening the waterway by 8 feet and widening it by 50 feet to allow the facility to handle Neopanamax ships, which are capable of carrying carrying containers with a capacity up to 13,000 20-foot-equivalent units, or TEUs. The rail project would involve increasing clearance on the nine tunnels of the 134-mile rail line — which connects with Union Pacific and two short lines in Eugene, Ore. — to handle double-stack containers. Infrastructure improvements would also include the addition of sidings to allow movements of six inbound and six outbound unit trains, and other bridge and track work to increase capacity.
The port said in a press release that the state of Oregon has already committed $60 million in funding, and that the project has bipartisan support from legislators throughout the U.S.
