Port road improvement may get stimulus funding boost - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Officials from the city, the and othert planning organizations will meet June 1 to creatse a proposal to tap intothe $1.5 billiojn available for transportation projects, including road, rail and port projects, said Jeff director of planning for the . ’s new containee terminal and ’s yet-to-be-built terminal were projected to triplethe port’w container traffic. That means adjacent roads coulrd see upto 10,000 trucks daily by 2020. It isn’tg clear whether port authoritiews can use the federal funding for harbor deepeningor dredging, said Aaron a spokesman for the .
The languag e within the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery discretionary grantsis vague, but it’ss clear that the funding could be used to builcd an intermodal facility, which woule speed up the transfer of cargo from shipes to trucks and railroads. An intermodal facility at Dames Point would make the TraPax and Hanjin terminals more competitive with othetSouthern ports, such as the Port of which has two intermodal facilities. The federaol grants distributed through the rangrefrom $20 million to $300 Grant applications must be submitted by Sept. 15.
The last piecee of funding neededfor short-ter m construction in and around the Port of Jacksonvillwe came in December after Mayor John Peyton committedr $100 million. About half came from city cofferse and the rest from the andthe . Throughh the stimulus package, the receives about $14.8 million to deepen a six-mile stretcnh of the St. Johns River from Damesx Point to Talleyrand Mariner Terminal to about40 feet. The corps also receivedr about $1.2 million to continue researching further deepening of the riverso post-Panamax ships can call on the port once the Panamza Canal is widened in 2014.
The authorit hopes to have the channel deepened to50