Wilmington Port to continue major expansion after David Rouzer visit

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The North Carolina State Port is a big competitor for ocean traffic on the East Coast, but could it be better?

Friday U.S. Representative David Rouzer toured the port, learning about present and future expansion. The planned changes could in some cases double storage and make Wilmington a more competitive East coast port.

Over the past few years, the port has made strides: repaving older areas originally used for ship building, expanding it’s space to the new South Gate, and working to deepen waters by five feet (from 42 to 47).

“The ship behind us is one of the largest that hauls on the east coast,” said executive director Brian Clark. “The challenge the shippers have is they can’t utilize them to their full capacity. So the five foot is important because it will allow these shippers to utilize and load more cargo onboard the vessel and benefit the economy at scale.”

The whole project costing around $800 million is already receiving some federal assistance, according to Rouzer.

“We were very pleased to get included $500,000 in the energy and water appropriations bill to help facilitate the environmental study for this,” Rouzer said.

And pending house approval, more federal assistance could be on the way in an infrastructure.

Rouzer continued, “If an infrastructure bill comes through, there’s going to be a lot of money going to a lot of different areas. And we’ll just have to see how that shakes out.”

The next phase of expansion will start with a study of the dredging’s environmental impacts on the area.

“We expect the studies to take place over the next several years,” Clark explained. “The construction of the actual project after final authorization and the studies are completed would probably be about a four year time period. So we’re looking at within the next two to three years hopefully to meet those needs and be able to move forward.”

Though Representative Rouzer didn’t believe the infrastructure bill would make it through the House, his thoughts would depend on what Nancy Pelosi presents on the floor.