County seeks inland site for seaport cargo operations
Legislation in Miami-Dade’s Trade and Tourism Committee today (12/15) would target an inland site for seaport cargo operations to free space on the port’s 250 acres and direct officials to study how to pay for it all.
The inland port would be geographically central to private warehouses, allowing PortMiami to store containers and trucks until a shipping customer needs them.
Once cargo containers are emptied at warehouses, many now are returned to the port, taking space at terminal yards until they’re transported to a shipping line for filling. An inland port would reduce road congestion the trucks cause traveling to PortMiami, the resolution says.
In addition, it states, an inland port would spur economic growth and employment countywide as such facilities have done in Jacksonville, Savannah, GA, and Charleston, SC.
Should the resolution pass today and Jan. 24 in the full commission, the administration would have 120 days to report funds available to design, develop and construct the inland port, including federal and state grants, operating revenues and port bond proceeds.
The administration also would apply for Fast Act Funds under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, signed by President Obama on Dec. 4, 2015, providing long-term funds for surface transportation and authorizing the spending of billions over fiscal years 2016-2020 for rail transportation and national multimodal freight facilities. Under Fast Act rules, Miami-Dade gets a limited amount of Fast Act funds, which must be prioritized for qualifying projects countywide.
The administration would also seek grants through the Florida Department of Transportation, which may award about $4 million for the inland port.
PortMiami officials haven’t publically stated a preference for an inland port site.
DC Copeland
December 14, 2016 at 6:59 am
I must be missing something, but how would an inland port reduce road congestion? Unless they are loaded onto barges going up and down the Miami River– and creating more Brickell bridge openings to impact traffic– they will still be making a back and forth trek on our roads. If they’re loaded on freight cars that means crossing downtown streets and causing traffic to stop as the trains pass. So… ?
John Dohm
December 14, 2016 at 9:20 am
This is a brilliant idea and one that only local government can implement. Land is so expensive in Miami-Dade – at a minimum price of $500,000 per acres, most of which requires substantial preparatory site work – that it is impossible to perform the off-port operations at prices that will make sense to shippers and cargo owners. When compared with the land prices in Savannah, Charleston or even Jacksonville we are at a disadvantage.
W are spending $20-billion upgrading two deep-water seaports, two international airports, our entire expressway grid and rail services; we surely need to be able to handle the business that we are attracting.
RICHARD DUBIN
December 18, 2016 at 9:53 am
This project will not reduce road congestion unless the following occurs. It sounds as if they are proposing an offsite container storage area which is very commonly used at ports in the USA. This will reduce the need for more space at the port for the storage of containers waiting to be returned to the shipping lines. The only way this will help traffic is if the project better controls the flow of trucks back to the port with more truck friendly roads or if the containers are being returned by barge from the Miami River. Otherwise this project seems to be just a way of the port freeing up land space for another type of project, ie: cruise terminal, hotel, office building, etc?