Public Ports Call for Share of the Stimulus Package

[babylonsister]

Public Ports Call for Share of the Stimulus Package


The nation’s public ports, following the lead of the highway, airline and transit industries, are asking for $6.8 billion for harbor maintenance in the ever growing economic recovery package.

The American Association of Port Authorities says its members have 153 “shovel-ready” projects from the Port of Anchorage to Port Canaveral that they say would create 250,000 new jobs.

“The trade will move somewhere else if our infrastructure can’t handle it,” Kurt Nagle, president of association, said.

Nagle said one-third of the United States’ economic growth is from exports, but that number could be higher if the ports were maintained to adequate depths.

The 59 largest ports in the country are kept at their adequate depths only 39 percent of the time, he said.

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