From October 31, 2022 post.
Rep. Courtney worked with the City of New London and Mohawk Northeast to pursue this funding in 2020, 2021, and this year in 2022
New London, CT—Today, Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) joined New London Mayor Mike Passero, Allan Heinke (President, Mohawk Northeast), Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and others to announce a new $7 million federal Port Infrastructure Development Program grant award for the City of New London and Mohawk Northeast, Inc. The award represents a major new investment in eastern Connecticut’s local economy, and will support rapidly increasing activity in the region’s maritime sector for decades to come by helping to develop and construct a modern marine terminal that joins freight rail access to Mohawk’s deep-water wharf and adjacent manufacturing activity—a highly productive feature that current regional terminals lack.
The federal Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) was first authorized by Rep. Courtney and his colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) in 2020 under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The program is operated by U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD), and grants are extremely competitive. Rep. Courtney’s office has been working directly with Mohawk Northeast to pursue funding for this project for three consecutive years, first in 2020 and again in 2021. After Rep. Courtney helped pass the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)—which provided $450 million for the PIDP program in 2022—his office worked with Mohawk to pursue the grant award for a third time this year, and were successful.
“This Port Infrastructure grant award is the result of consistent bipartisan work, and it’s a huge win for continued economic success and job growth in our region,” said Rep. Courtney. “We’re seeing a ton of exciting activity in eastern Connecticut, and none of it’s happening by accident—in fact, when it comes to today’s grant award, my colleagues and I on the House Armed Services Committee helped originate the Port Infrastructure Development Program back in 2020 specifically for use-cases like this in New London. Too many of America’s ports have been neglected for too long, and we’ve seen the drag that can create on our economy while other ports around the world are modernizing at a rapid clip. Modernizing our own ports has become an economic and national security imperative, and this is a perfect example of why we created the PIDP program in the first place: to ramp-up capabilities at America’s smaller, critical ports like these. My office has been working directly with Mohawk Northeast for three years to go after this funding, and I want to congratulate Mohawk Northeast President Allan Heinke and his entire team for stepping back up to the plate and earning it.”
“On behalf of everyone at Mohawk Northeast, we want to say ‘Thank You’ to all of the organizations involved in the awarding of this grant,” said Allan Heinke, president of Mohawk Northeast, Inc. “We are extremely excited to be involved in this opportunity to add to the strength and vibrancy of the New London waterfront. Mohawk is perfectly poised to provide the manpower and expertise to create the vision that we’ve all had for so long. We are grateful that we will be part of a project that will provide economic strength and job creation for the city of New London, the region, and the entire state of Connecticut for years to come. Mohawk Northeast is ready to dig into this critical new project, and we are grateful for this MARAD grant.”
“From enhanced submarine construction to clean energy production, we’re already seeing a serious uptick in economic activity on our waterfront, and today’s announcement of $7 million in new federal Port Infrastructure development funding is going to help us keep that growth and momentum going strong,” said New London Mayor Mike Passero. “Mohawk’s Groton facility has already been the center for lots of increased activity on our waterfront and in the maritime sector, and with federal funding finally in place now to help us develop a modernized marine facility—connecting the deep-water wharf and all the manufacturing activity that takes place there to freight rail access—it’s going to really ramp our capabilities up, and help us attract even more growth and career opportunities. Thank you to Congressman Joe Courtney for working with us to every step of the way to support this grant application and this opportunity for New London, and congratulations to Mohawk Northeast on earning this exciting opportunity.”
“New England Central Railroad (NECR) congratulates Mohawk on this grant award,” said Len Wagner, president of NECR. “The ensuing infrastructure improvements will help to create a more viable rail-to-water transload facility in Connecticut and facilitate additional growth in New London.”
The Port Infrastructure Development Program, and Today’s Award
A rendered image displaying where upcoming port infrastructure activity will take place in New London was shared at today’s press conference. For more detailed information, contact Rep. Courtney’s office.
As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Courtney helped authorize the federal Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) for the first time in the 2020 NDAA. The program was funded $255 million that year, specifically to award grants to make improvements to facilities within, or outside of and directly related to operations of coastal seaports, inland river ports, and Great Lakes ports. Rep. Courtney’s office first worked with the City of New London and Mohawk Northeast to pursue this grant funding that same year in 2020, but the application was not awarded by MARAD.
Rep. Courtney’s office worked with the City of New London and Mohawk Northeast again in 2021 to pursue federal PIDP funding. The PIDP program was funded at a level of $230 million for FY 2021, and Rep. Courtney helped to facilitate several letters of support for the New London and Mohawk Northeast’s grant application, which was submitted in July of 2021. MARAD announced that year’s awardees in December 2021, and the application was again not selected.
In November of 2021, Rep. Courtney voted to pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which provided increased infrastructure funding for a wide range of important projects nationwide in FY 2022 and over the next four years. The IIJA included $450 million for the PIDP program in FY 2022—a $195 million increase over 2021 levels. The FY 2022 budget, passed in March, also appropriated an additional $235 million for the PIDP program this year, bringing the total PIDP funding level for FY 2022 to $684 million—the largest single-year amount in the history of the program.
In March of 2022, Rep. Courtney’s office encouraged the City of New London and Mohawk Northeast to again pursue port development funding through the PIDP. The application was submitted in May of this year, and this time it was successful—the City of New London and Mohawk Northeast, Inc. will officially be awarded with $7 million in grants through the federal Port Infrastructure Development Program. The funding will be used to design and construct a modern marine terminal at Mohawk Northeast, Inc., connecting freight rail access to Mohawk’s deep-water wharf and adjacent large-scale manufacturing activity. The project will help improve marine commerce and spur continued growth along the waterfront and in the New London region.
Seapower and Projection Forces SubcommitteeEconomy & JobsTransportation & Infrastructure
Original source can be found here.
