Embrace the ports: a natural resource
The primary goal of every state initiative should be to create jobs and improve the state’s wobbly economy. So it was good news when the Connecticut Port Authority earlier this month produced a five- year plan for the state’s large ports — Bridgeport, New Haven and New London — and smaller harbors, like those in Milford, Norwalk and Stamford.
It was a small irony when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who’s been in the wheelhouse, so to speak, for the last eight years, notes that the state’s ports and harbors “represent tremendous untapped economic potential.”
A busy port may not be as sexy as, say, a waterfront casino resort, but it’s a far more logical — and productive — use of the land and water.
Successful states embrace and capitalize on their natural resources.
Connecticut has not paid the attention it should to Long Island Sound and its ports.
That’s partly because glitzier proposals for economic development tend to distract from the meatand- potatoes considerations of creating a working waterfront.
An outing to any number of New England waterfront cities — let’s just take Portland, Maine as an example — will show how a working port can blend beautifully with restaurants, shops and residences.
Complicating the task of rejuvenating Connecticut’s ports and harbors is the decidedly unsexy issue of dredging.
The term “deepwater port” gets tossed around, but it would be interesting to know which of them truly warrant that name. By some definitions of the term, the water needs to be 30 feet deep.
Bridgeport, for instance, is not a deepwater port. It’s been years since the so- called “banana boats” of the Turbana Corp. were able to enter the harbor.
Over decades, silt builds up from the flow of water with the tides and the influx from rivers.
The silt needs to be removed periodically to allow for navigation. For at least the last decade, there has been an on- again, off- again debate in the state and its shoreline communities about where that dredged material goes.
The advantages to bringing ports up to speed are many, and not just for shoreline communities. As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.
For instance, not the least of the benefits would be a substantial decrease in the amount of cargo that now needs to travel by truck along the interstate highway system.
Given the unanimous agreement that Connecticut’s clogged roads, particularly in Fairfield County, are an impediment to economic growth, revitalized ports could eventually be a major boost to job creation.
Extending rail links to port areas would also help ease congestion on the roads and facilitate the transport of freight.
Come January, Connecticut will have a new governor. He should give careful consideration to the Port Authority recommendations and think what rejuvenated ports and harbors will add to his legacy.
A busy port may not be as sexy as, say, a waterfront casino resort, but it’s a far more logical — and productive — use of the land and water.