Commissioners of the Port of , Miss., have approved a master plan for an expansion that could cost $1 billion and will expand the hurricane-damaged port by extending it seaward from existing cargo-handling facilities. In a related development, port officials said Chiquita Brands, which has imported bananas into the port since the mid-Sixties, has signed an agreement to continue to serve the port for the next 20 years.
Gulfport was hit hard in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, whose 22.5-foot storm surge flattened warehouses and scattered containers and their cargo far inland. Volume is only now approaching the 214,000 TEUs the port handled before the storm.
Gulfport ranks third among Gulf ports in TEU volume. Besides Chiquita, the port is served by Dole and Crowley.
The port's expansion, which will be carried out in stages with private-sector partners, will be partly financed with $570 million in community development block grants that the Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded to Mississippi after Katrina.
The use of the money for port expansion created some local controversy, with critics saying the money should be used to provide housing that remains in short supply in the area. State officials noted that the port funds were part of the state's initial request to HUD for post-Katrina reconstruction aid.
Port Director Don Allee said the HUD money will provide financing for the port expansion's first phase, which includes raising the port's elevation to 25 feet above sea level from the current 10 feet, to protect the port from storm surges of future hurricanes. The port also will use existing permits to fill in approximately 40 acres.
Longer-term plans call for the port to pursue additional environmental permits that would allow it to create additional acreage for cargo handling. Allee said that for that second phase of development, the port will seek private terminal operators that would provide investment in exchange for operating concessions.
Allee said development plans also include dredging. Gulfport's authorized channel depth now is 36 feet. Before Katrina, the port had completed cost-benefit studies for a 42-foot channel, but Allee said a deeper channel may be needed to handle anticipated cargo growth from the expanded Panama Canal and from east-west services.
Gulfport was hit hard in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, whose 22.5-foot storm surge flattened warehouses and scattered containers and their cargo far inland. Volume is only now approaching the 214,000 TEUs the port handled before the storm.
Gulfport ranks third among Gulf ports in TEU volume. Besides Chiquita, the port is served by Dole and Crowley.
The port's expansion, which will be carried out in stages with private-sector partners, will be partly financed with $570 million in community development block grants that the Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded to Mississippi after Katrina.
The use of the money for port expansion created some local controversy, with critics saying the money should be used to provide housing that remains in short supply in the area. State officials noted that the port funds were part of the state's initial request to HUD for post-Katrina reconstruction aid.
Port Director Don Allee said the HUD money will provide financing for the port expansion's first phase, which includes raising the port's elevation to 25 feet above sea level from the current 10 feet, to protect the port from storm surges of future hurricanes. The port also will use existing permits to fill in approximately 40 acres.
Longer-term plans call for the port to pursue additional environmental permits that would allow it to create additional acreage for cargo handling. Allee said that for that second phase of development, the port will seek private terminal operators that would provide investment in exchange for operating concessions.
Allee said development plans also include dredging. Gulfport's authorized channel depth now is 36 feet. Before Katrina, the port had completed cost-benefit studies for a 42-foot channel, but Allee said a deeper channel may be needed to handle anticipated cargo growth from the expanded Panama Canal and from east-west services.