WASHINGTON — A rail-related project at the Port of Long Beach in Southern California and replacement of the Interstate 5 bridge between Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., are among projects to receive federal Mega Grant funding, according to announcement by federal legislators.
Another such grant, for a new rail drawbridge at Stuart, Fla., has already been reported [see “Congressman says Stuart, Fla., will receive grant …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 19, 2023]. As was the case with Federal Railroad Administration’s recent Federal-State Partnership and Corridor Identification and Development passenger grants, local senators and congressmen are given the chance to announce funding awards to their constituents ahead of an announcement of all awards. In this case, however, not all awards will be rail-related.
Two of the others announced on Monday do have a rail component, however.
— The Port of Long Beach’s $283 million grant is for its Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility, a $1.6 billion project expanding a rail yard to handle 10,000-foot trains and creating a new locomotive maintenance facility. Other infrastructure work related to the project received a $52.6 million grant in November [see “Federal grant boosts Port of Long Beach rail yard improvement project,” News Wire, Nov. 6, 2023]. The project will allow for more on-dock rail operations and reduce truck traffic.
“This is a home run and significant investment for Long Beach and trade across the country,” U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) said in a press release. “This grant will create over 1,000 local jobs and 13,000 jobs across the country, As the former Mayor of Long Beach I know how impactful this project will be to supporting the supply chain while reducing harmful pollution for families here at home.”
The project includes two new mainline tracks and five 10,000-foot receiving and departure tracks at the North Yard, as well as 26 new storage tracks north of the existing Yard B. It also adds seven new 3,000-foot storage tracks at the South yard, rehabilitates seven other 3,000-fottracks, adds two new tracks in the Pico Avenue rail corridor, and reconfigures tracks near Pier D Street.
— The replacement of the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River — parts of which are a century old — received $600 million, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) announced. That’s only a small portion of the funding needed for a project estimated to cost $6 billion to $7.5 billion. The bridge handles more than 131,000 vehicles some $132 million in freight daily, Cantwell said in a lengthy press release. While primarily a highway project, plans for the new bridge call for TriMet’s MAX light rail system to be extended north across the bridge into Vancouver, Wash. — a feature that was hotly debated for years and killed an earlier bridge replacement plan.
Meanwhile, KMTR-TV reports the Port of Coos Bay, Ore., has learned it will not be among the recipients of a Mega Grant for an ambitious plan to upgrade the port to handle some 1.2 million containers a year and upgrade the port’s 134-mile railroad to handle a dozen intermodal trains daily [see “Port of Coos Bay seeks Mega Grant …,” News Wire, Aug. 27, 2023]. It is the second year the project has been bypassed in the grant process. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley announced the decision on the social media site X.
Mike Garcia is a conscientious legislator, and if the Mega Grant project unclogs drayage traffic at the port that will be good for people in Long Beach and probably profitable for the railroads. But 13,000 new jobs created nationwide?
At some point the insanity of these “job creation” and “economic impact” models has to be called out. Not that I’m holding my breath.
If the Coos Bay project is that important and, given the 51-49 split in the US Senate, then the 2 Oregon Senators don’t seem to be willing to use their political power to get it some funding.