Eager for bulkier container ships to fuel the state’s economy, politicians and businesspeople on Monday feted federal dollars that will help dredge a deeper channel in Boston Harbor.
An expansion of the Panama Canal, which links the East Coast to the deep harbors of the West Coast and Asia, has set off a scramble for ports along the Atlantic to accommodate larger vessels.
"We’re not just a shining city on a hill. We’re also a shining city on the shore," said U.S. Sen. Ed Markey at a celebration of the funding at the end of Fish Pier.
State lawmakers this year included $65 million for the roughly $311 million dredging project in an environmental bond bill, which leaves spending decisions to the governor. Congress included $216 million in federal dollars for the project in the roughly $12 billion Water Resources Reform and Development Act, which President Obama signed into law in June.
"This harbor’s getting dredged," said Congressman Michael Capuano, distinguishing the federal funding from state bond authorizations, which are left to the administration to pursue or not. Officials have previously said the Massachusetts Port Authority would split the non-federal financing with the state.
Charlie Baker will take over as governor on Jan. 8, and his spokesman told the News Service, "Governor-elect Baker will review this proposal once in office and make the best possible decision for the people of Massachusetts."
Massport CEO Tom Glynn said on Nov. 14 the biggest ship ever in the port docked at Conley Terminal with 8,000 containers, which is about 30 percent more containers than the typical ship. The ship was the MSC Judith.
Glynn said the Army Corps of Engineers has moved the project up, and said Massachusetts was one of only four states to receive an increase in funding under the highway bill.
Massport expects the Army Corps to begin dredging in the fall of 2015 and finish the project by the spring of 2017.
Glynn also said 50,000 Subarus arrived in the port last year, along with two-thirds of New England’s heating oil, and said 350,000 to 400,000 passengers are using the cruise terminal annually.
Massport has started working on a dedicated route to the terminal that would keep truck traffic off local streets in South Boston. The port also has plans to expand Conley, and part of the state’s bond bill funding could go towards feasibility studies for shipping terminal and cruise facility expansions.
The $5.25 billion canal expansion project began in September 2007 and is nearing completion.
Congressman Stephen Lynch, a former ironworker, recalled working on modifications to the container cranes at Conley.
"We had to raise those so they could accommodate the larger ships, and I was a welder back in the day," said the South Boston Democrat. "Guarantee you, it was the coldest winter of my life, up there freezing my tail off welding the extensions onto those tower cranes.
"So you don’t want to walk under those tower cranes," Lynch said, to laughter.
Glynn credited Senate President Therese Murray with moving the dredging financing forward. Murray recalled her childhood in Dorchester when her uncle was "head of the fish port."
"We could walk from boat to boat, and all the fishing boats were out there, and it smelled really bad," said Murray, who said she didn’t want the "maritime mission" to change in the face of sweeping "gentrification" along the waterfront.
Capuano also recalled the era before the harbor views drove pricey Boston real estate.
"When I was growing up here the harbor was a place to dump things – dump cars, dump bodies, dump whatever. No one ever thought about it, and little by little the harbor kind of faded away," the Somerville Democrat recalled.
