PHOTO COURTESY FENTON GROUP/SCOTT INDERMAUR AGING CRANES: The two Clyde Model 28 cranes at the Port of Providence, which officials say were built in 1979 and past their useful lifespan. The port wants $39.4 million to purchase new cranes and install wind turbines.

November 9, 2009

R.I. ports fight for stimulus money

By Chris Barrett
PBN Staff Writer

The opportunity for a fat slice of federal stimulus money has drawn both of Rhode Island’s industrial ports into the fray, potentially pitting one against the other as they compete for dollars from the same pool.

The Port of Providence wants $39.4 million to purchase two new barge-mounted cranes and install wind turbines and solar panels. Down Narragansett Bay, Quonset Business Park wants $45.4 million to purchase a land-based crane for its Davisville port, widen roads and undertake other infrastructure improvements. Officials at both ports said the two facilities rarely compete head to head, and the grant applications under the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program mark an anomaly.

But Bruce Waterson, president of Waterson Terminal Services, which operates the Port of Providence, told Providence Business News he was bewildered that the R.I. Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which manages Quonset, supported the Providence application while simultaneously submitting its own request. Waterson said the two ports could have coordinated a request for a barge-based crane, and even shared one between the two. Coordination, Waterson said, could have boosted the chances for the state to receive a piece of the $1.5 billion in available funding that has attracted more than 1,400 applications.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “We think ours is a much better project for the state in general with [the cranes] being barge mounted and [potentially] serving in both places,” Waterson said.

The EDC sees it differently. Fred S. Hashway Jr., director of government affairs for the EDC, thinks both projects carry merit.
“The closer you can get the products to the customers the more efficient your supply chain is,” Hashway said. “So if we have multiple ports of entry, Quonset and Providence, that gets products closer to customers. That’s a good thing for our supply chain and … for our ports.”

The two ports also handle different cargo. Providence tends to draw ships carrying bulk cargo such as coal, while Quonset handles ships carrying things like automobiles. Quonset is also jockeying to be the hub of the wind turbine assembly industry on the East Coast.