The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority will spend the bulk of a $16 million federal grant and $4 million in matching funds on upgrades vital to the Port of Toledo’s ongoing operations and economic impact, port officials said during a morning news conference Friday.
Thomas Winston, the port authority’s president and chief executive, said $14 million will be spent rebuilding and upgrading the mile-long dock wall at the general-cargo dock will maintain vital port infrastructure that dates back to the 1950s.
The general-cargo docks handled 1.3 million tons of cargo during 2019. Overall, cargo movement through the Port of Toledo generates an estimated $669 million in annual economic activity and 7,000 jobs in the Toledo area, the port president said.
“We’re talking about the economic well-being of our community, supported by the port,” Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said. “It’s an important economic driver in our community that often goes overlooked.”
The $16 million is believed to be the largest dollar grant ever awarded to the port authority. The agency hopes to secure state funding to cover at least a substantial portion of the $4 million local match, Mr. Winston said, but would be able to cover that obligation if it has to.
Joe Cappel, the port authority’s vice president of business development, said the dock-wall reconstruction is expected to take three years to complete and would be done in phases so that port operations would continue unabated.
About $6 million of the total outlay will pay for construction of a bulk-liquid transfer and storage facility that will fill an unmet need at the port’s general-cargo docks, Alex Johnson, president of Midwest Terminals of Toledo International, said.
Midwest, which operates the port authority’s “Facility 1,” has received several inquiries about liquid-cargo movements, “but we don’t have the capability now to transport liquids at that facility,” Mr. Johnson said. “This opens us up to pursue multiple sources of commodities.”
Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark H. Buzby, maritime administrator for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration, said America’s ports are vital not only to the country’s economic well-being but also to its national security, because the seafarers who ply commercial trade are also the ready reserve for transporting supplies and equipment for the military.
The general public tends to think of transportation as roads and bridges, airports and rail, “but certainly there’s a lot more to it,” he told the gathering of local leaders during the news conference at the National Museum of the Great Lakes.
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, (D., Toledo), said the work now to be done builds upon the “leadership of generations that preceded us” in developing Toledo’s port and the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway system as a whole.
“Over the years, the Seaway has struggled to compete with our deepwater ports, and that struggle continues,” Miss Kaptur said. But with improvements coming both in Toledo and at the Port of Cleveland, which also received a $9 million Maritime Administration grant this week, “the Great Lakes are going to hum even louder in the coming years.”
First Published February 14, 2020, 6:00 p.m.
