Port will receive COVID economic impact funds

The Port of Morgan City will receive some federal and state help with overcoming the economic damage inflicted by COVID-19.

Harbor and Terminal District commissioners heard the news at Monday's meeting at the Emergency Operations Center. Also Monday, the board got an update on dredging that may have the port's channel at something close to its authorized dimensions for the first time in years; heard that vessel traffic has increased in local waterways; and re-elected its current slate of officers.

COVID money
Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District commissioners learned Monday that the port will receive about $598,000 from federal coronavirus relief funding administered by the state government. The state set aside $50 million specifically for ports, Morgan City port Executive Director Raymond "Mac" Wade said.

The money will help offset some of the losses incurred during the pandemic.

Those impacts involved, among others, Baker Hughes and Halliburton, two internationally known oilfield service companies and longtime tenants at the port. Baker Hughes pulled out of the port altogether, and Halliburton scaled back its operations when the pandemic response pushed down the price of oil.

"These customers have been with us a long time," Wade said.

The port had also extended the rail capacity in anticipation of increased business.

The grant announced Monday won't cover all the losses, but "I'm thankful for whatever we could get," Wade said.

Dredging
The Weeks Marine cutter-head dredge Capt. Frank is expected to be back in Berwick Bay within the next few days after completing its work nearby on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

The dredge arrived within the last few weeks and dredged an opening about 300 feet wide in Berwick Bay, mostly near the Morgan City side from the Conrad Shipyard and the fuel docks to south of the bridges. The Capt. Frank will come back to the bay for a few days to work along the edge of the channel it cleared earlier.

The Capt. Frank's work is part of an unprecedented level of dredging on the Port of Morgan City's waterways. A Manson Construction dredge recently completed its work near Crewboat Cut. The specially built Brice Civil Constructors dredge Arulak continues to remove fluff mud from the bar channel closer to the coast. And a Great Lakes Dredge & Dock dredge is at work near Eugene Island.

Major dredging projects are funded by the federal government through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and run into the millions of dollars each. The funding depends on a process that includes the president's initial budget submission to Congress, followed by deliberations on the Corps' work plan and possible supplemental funding.

The Port of Morgan City has been on a hot streak where dredge funding is concerned, raising hopes that the often-silted channel can be restored to its authorized depth of 20 feet and width of 400 feet. That would allow large cargo vessels to use the port again after six years of drastically reduced traffic.

"We'll have a 400-foot channel all the way to the sea buoy ...," Wade said. "We'll have enough funding in place to keep it open."

State authorities have also approved $15 million in grants that will finance an expansion of the port's dock from 800 to nearly 1,900 feet.

Traffic
Traffic by towing vessels was up 6.2% in November from November 2020, and total transits are up 16%, Coast Guard Lt. Hayley Gipson reported.

The local waterways monitored by the Coast Guard average 87 vessel transits every 24 hours, Gipson said.

The Coast Guard reported five vessel groundings last month, four of them at troublesome Stoute's Pass north of Berwick.

Shoaling in the Stoute's Pass area has been a recurring problem for months. The Coast Guard and the Corps of Engineers are looking at the possibility of designating a nearby waterway as the channel to avoid the shoaling.

Officers
The port board re-elected Joseph Cain president; Pete Orlando as vice president; Steven Cornes as secretary; and Deborah Garber as treasurer.

This story has been edited to correct the dimensions of the port's dock expansion.