LR port official gets OK to try for grants

Main dock in need of redesign, repair

The Little Rock Port Authority’s board of directors at a meeting on Wednesday approved two grant-seeking resolutions in an attempt to secure federal funding with which to redesign and repair the port authority’s main terminal dock.

Both resolutions were approved in voice votes with no opposition.

If the port is awarded funding through either of the two grant programs, port officials plan to withdraw from consideration for the other program.

Under the twin resolutions, Bryan Day, the executive director of the port authority, is authorized to apply for $3,335,200 apiece from two federal grant programs.

The first is the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant program, a discretionary grant program through the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The federal department late last year published a notice seeking applications for $1.5 billion to be distributed through the 2023 program. Selections will be announced no later than June 28, according to the Department of Transportation’s website.

The second is the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP), a discretionary grant program overseen by the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration.

Day on Wednesday told port authority board members that the RAISE grant funding would allow the port to redesign its original dock.

Planned work includes removing a warehouse and adding an overhead gantry crane, Day said.

He suggested that the port would qualify not to have to match funding awarded under the RAISE grant. If a match is required, Day said it would be approximately $600,000, or 20%. (Unsigned versions of both resolutions say the port authority will provide up to $667,040 in matching funds.)

As for the Port Infrastructure Development Program, the application period has not yet opened, but officials wanted to go ahead and get the board’s approval, Day said.

“The Port Infrastructure Development grant will require a match, and that’s why we’re hoping that the RAISE grant is more successful,” Day told board members.

Earlier on Wednesday, the port authority’s grants manager, Marsha Guffey, told board members of concerns about the condition of the main terminal dock while she showed them a series of images.

Issues include an area of depression that has developed at the dock underneath a crane. Some officials were concerned that this means parts of the underlying structure have failed, according to Guffey.

The main terminal dock, one of three owned by the port authority along the Arkansas River, was built in 1968.

At the same meeting, board members approved a resolution to give Day the OK to enter into a $224,444 contract with Trac-Work, Inc. for railroad maintenance and repair at the port.