November 9, 2009
Editorial: Poor port planning may cost R.I.

There is a limit to federal largesse, and so it is more important than ever that requests for grants be coordinated. Failure to do that on two critically important city and state transportation proposals may end up costing the projects dollars that they desperately need.

Providence and the nonprofit Port of Providence have asked for $39.5 million to buy two barge-mounted cranes, which are needed to allow the city to become a stop on the growing Marine Highway (formerly called short-sea shipping). The idea is to unload large container ships at central hubs, such as Newark, N.J., and then transfer cargo to smaller ships that deliver the goods to ports much closer to their final destination, thereby significantly reducing the much less fuel-efficient trucking portion of the journey. Becoming a stop on the highway would mean 500 permanent new jobs for Providence.

Further enhancing the environmental value of their proposal, the city and ProvPort plan to put two large windmills and multiple solar panels on the site, turning the port from a net user of electricity to a net producer.

Meanwhile, the R.I. Economic Development Corporation applied for $45.4 million to buy a land-based crane and perform a number of infrastructure upgrades needed by Deepwater Wind, which has promised to create its East Coast wind turbine manufacturing hub at Quonset. And, by the way, state officials say the crane could be used to make Quonset a stop on the Marine Highway, too.

Both projects have merit, but seriously, couldn’t the two have coordinated their efforts and put together a streamlined alternative that didn’t have the smallest state in the nation competing against itself in the quest for federal funds?