MarAd Awards Contracts To Study Port Needs In Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon

The Maritime Administration (MarAd) has awarded contracts totaling in excess of half a million dollars for the assessment of present facilities and future needs of ports in Alaska, Hawaii, and Oregon, Robert J. Blackwell, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Maritime Affairs, announced.

In its continuing program to promote port development, Mr.

Blackwell said, MarAd will share the costs of the three studies on approximately a 50-50 basis.

"With transportation technology ever changing," he said, "it's imperative that terminal operations in all American ports—on the oceans, Great Lakes and inland waterways—be equally innovative and of sufficient capacity to maintain America's leadership in foreign trade and foster domestic waterborne commerce. Port capability is, in fact, a basic criterion to an efficient and effective American merchant marine, which in turn is basic to the nation's continued economic growth and national security." Mr. Blackwell noted that over the past five years, MarAd has jointly funded port studies in more than half of the 50 states.

Major regional studies currently are underway in the Mississippi River-Gulf Basin and along the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System.

The latest awards provide for individual state studies as follows: Alaska — A $150,000 contract with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, equally shared by MarAd and the State of Alaska; subcontractors: Louis Berger & Associates, Inc., East Orange, N.J., and Phillio Engineering & Architectural Services, Fairbanks, Alaska.

The 18-month study will evaluate marine transportation in western and Arctic Alaska, a region in which transportation systems either do not exist, are seriously underdeveloped, or only marginally effective. The state seeks a comprehensive plan which (1) takes into account the potential future demand for Alaska's mineral and energy resources, and their movement to marketing and processing centers in the contiguous 48 states and throughout the world, and (2) provides residents in the western and Arctic sections with a transportation system that meets their present and future needs and also interfaces with a statewide transportation system.

Hawaii — A $255,000 contract with the Hawaii Department of Transportation, with Mar A d ' s share $125,000. (A subcontractor is to be selected.) The objectives of this 18-month study include the definition of existing and potential cargo flows of all types in domestic and foreign commerce to and from Hawaiian ports and to a cargo transshipment center; and investigation of an interisland ferry network, including a study of passenger demand, along with the services, vessel technology, and port facilities required for such a passenger system.

This contract covers the first phase of a continuing study to be funded over a three-year period.

Later phases, among other things, will examine Hawaii's total transportation system and future requirements and map marketing and planning strategies to assure the port capability that will be required by projected waterborne cargo and passenger service.

Oregon — An equally shared $150,000 contract with the Oregon Department of Economic Development ; cooperating agency: Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission; subcontractor: Ogdan Beeman, Portland, Ore.

The objective is to identify Oregon port and land resources needs and integrate these into the statewide comprehensive planning process.

The study will be in two phases of 12 months each—first to compile and analyze all existing technical, physical, commercial, and planning data related to Oregon ports, and then to coordinate the study's r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s into state and local planning documents, i n c l u d i n g Coastal Zone Management plans.

The port analyses will focus in part on the current role of individual Oregon ports in the state and local economies and of major Oregon ports in the regional economy, and present trends in the movement of waterborne cargo by regions within the state and adjacent regions of Washington, Idaho, and California.

End products of the study will include both analyses and forecasts of (1) the technological capability and throughput capacity of Oregon's ports and supporting transportation network, and (2) expected future commerce and commodity flows through ports of Oregon and elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. And finally, it will provide options and alternatives for individual Oregon ports and for the state itself, with recommendations on priorities and a schedule for their implementation.

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