Inland Waterways Report: Columbia-Snake River System
It’s amazing to consider that a commercial vessel in the Pacific Ocean, approaching the mouth of the Columbia River, can continue its eastward journey to finally tie up at the Port of Lewiston, in Lewiston, Idaho, America’s most inland West Coast port, 465 miles from the Pacific Ocean.The Columbia and Snake Rivers form that critical east-west waterway, an economic powerhouse regionally, nationally and internationally. According to the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association (PNWA)…
Barge-Rail Service on Upper Columbia, Snake Rivers
Container barge service is back on the upper Columbia and Snake rivers.The Up river Container Barge-Rail Shuttle will help importers and exporters in eastern Washington, Oregon and Idaho move containerized agricultural products to markets in Asia. An informal partnership including Northwest Container Service, Tidewater Barge and the ports of Morrow, Lewiston and Portland helped facilitate the return of this service. The first barge is currently loading at the Port of Lewiston this week and expected to get underway Thursday. The new service would address key issues driving up the cost of transportation in the wake of losing direct carrier service at Terminal 6 in Portland earlier this year— loss of barge service, container availability and cost of trucking to Puget Sound ports.
Port Slowdown Impacts Lewsiton Shipping
The Port of Lewiston's container shipments declined to the worst level in more than two decades in 2014, and port officials are blaming a union labor disagreement and a contracted operator of the Port of Portland's container terminal. Lewiston port employees handled 3,240 containers in 2014, said Manager David Doeringsfeld at a port commissioner meeting. Doeringsfeld says the main problem is that the farthest inland seaport on the West Coast can't get enough empty containers to meet demand. He blames a union labor disagreement and a contracted operator at the Port of Portland's container terminal in Oregon. However, the union's official version is that the union and contract operator have nothing to do with how many empty containers the Port of Lewiston receives.
Real Marine Highways for Real Intermodal Solutions
The Columbia/Snake River System defines shortsea shipping, and promises much, much more. Lewiston, Idaho, is perhaps best known to tourists as the turnaround for a Columbia River cruise or the jumping-off point for a trip to Hell’s Canyon, North America’s deepest gorge. For anyone transporting cargo, however, it’s known as the port farthest inland of any on the West Coast – a whopping 465 miles inland from the mouth of the Columbia River. Located close to the border between Washington and Oregon…
$79m in TIGER IV Port Infrastructure Grants Awarded
After assessing more than 700 project applications equaling about $10.2 billion, the U.S. Department of Transportation today announced that 47 projects in 34 states and the District of Columbia will receive a total of $485.3 million in its fourth round of TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) infrastructure grant awards. Of the 47 capital project funding requests selected for awards, eight go directly to America’s port-related infrastructure. These eight project grants total more than $79 million, or about 16 percent of the capital grant funds available. “In his Fast Lane blog this week, Sec. LaHood reiterated the Obama administration’s ‘deep commitment’ to investing in our ports and marine highways to create jobs and keep American goods moving to markets.
