News – Page 40 – Pacific Maritime Magazine

Port of Everett Inks Deal for Restoration of Historic Waterfront Building

The Port of Everett has signed a 10-year lease with Weyerhaeuser Muse LLC to renovate and reopen the historic 1920s Weyerhaeuser Building on the waterfront. The contract with the company owned by Jack and Jin Ng of China City Property LLC calls for plans to install a new whiskey bar and coffee shop called The Muse and space for the Port of Everett Marina boating clubs to meet. The port plans to spend up to $1 million to renovate and ready the building for tenant improvements later this year. The port hopes to open the building in 2023; it would…

Everett Ship Repair Operations Grow

Washington-based Everett Ship Repair has expanded its operations with the addition of a new dry dock, the Emerald Lifter. The dry dock, which has a lifting capacity of 2,000 tons and working deck area of 220 feet by 62 feet, has been positioned at Everett Ship Repair’s Port of Everett facility. The repair facility is also adding a 150-ton capacity floating crane to service both of the yard’s dry docks. Currently, ESR operates the Faithful Servant, a 430-foot by-110-foot dry dock with 8,000-ton capacity; with the new acquisition, the company said, it will be able to offer services to a…

USDA, Seaport Alliance Partnering on Agricultural Exports

In an effort to help agricultural and refrigerated exports flow through the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Northwest Seaport Alliance are teaming up to expand access to a 49-acre “pop up” yard in Seattle that could temporarily store dry agricultural or refrigerated containers, the USDA announced in mid-March. The partnership calls for the Farm Service Agency to pay agricultural companies and cooperatives $200 per dry container and $400 per refrigerated to use the pop-up site to pre-position containers with American-grown agricultural goods, according to the Seaport Alliance, which is a port authority comprising the…

USCG Kimball Offloads Illegal Drugs in San Diego

Crew members with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball on March 31 delivered over 11,300 pounds of seized cocaine and over 4,000 pounds of apprehended marijuana in San Diego. The more than $223 million worth of drugs was taken during eight interdictions in February and March in the Eastern Pacific Ocean with the help of partnering vessels. The Kimball, a 420-foot Legend-Class National Security Cutter homeported in Honolulu, played a major role in the drug seizures, including one interdiction resulting in roughly 2,295 pounds of cocaine; a joint effort with Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Yellowknife to seize about 331 pounds…

Foss to Open East Coast Terminal Supporting Offshore Wind Projects

Seattle-based Foss Maritime is teaming up with Cannon Street Holdings LLC to redevelop a 30-acre former Sprague/Eversource site at the Port of New Bedford in Massachusetts into the New Bedford Foss Marine Terminal, Foss announced in March. The terminal, set to open in March 2023, is designed to support offshore wind projects off Massachusetts and the northeastern coast seaboard by providing office space for project teams, coordination space for project technicians and yards for storing and laying down equipment and materials, as well as “berth facilities for tug and barge operations, and host crew transfer vessel and service operation vessel…

Newsmakers

Port of Long Beach Appoints Program Management Division Lead Tasha Higgins has been chosen to helm the Port of Long Beach’s Program Management Division, which is responsible for improving waterways, wharfs, terminals, railroads, bridges, roadways and utilities, the port announced Wednesday, March 16. The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners appointed Higgins, who joined the port in October 2020 as assistant director of program management. Her appointment took effect March 26. Higgins previously spent nearly three decades working on various transportation improvement programs for Long Beach Transit, Los Angeles World Airports, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other…

Port of Grays Harbor Tenant to Expand Export Facility

The Port of Grays Harbor’s biggest marine terminal customer, Nebraska-based U.S. soybean processor/refiner AGP, is making expansion plans for its Washington Coast facility, the port revealed in late March. AGP’s Board of Directors recently approved plans to expand and enhance its facilities at the port, including more storage at its current export facility at Terminal 2 and a new, modern ship loader at Terminal 4. “The port’s strategic location and access to rail have once again presented us with an incredible opportunity with a committed, strong private partner willing to further invest in our community,” POGH Executive Director Gary Nelson…

Shaver Transportation Joins Green Marine Program

Portland, Oregon-based inland water freight company Shaver Transportation has become the first tug and barge operator on the U.S. West Coast to participate in Green Marine, the leading voluntary environmental certification program for North America’s maritime industry. Shaver announced the news in late March. “We want to be proactive and believe that Green Marine will be able to guide us toward continual improvement in the environmental performance of each of our vessels through the program’s detailed framework,” Shaver Transportation President Steve Shaver said. “It is important to us that our fleet operates in the most safe and sustainable manner possible.”…

Port of LA Completes Everport Terminal Improvements

The Port of Los Angeles has completed construction of the $65 million Everport Terminal Improvement Project located at Berths 226-236 along the Los Angeles Main Channel, the port confirmed in April. The project, according to the port, would allow Everport to improve the container-handling efficiency and capacity of its existing terminal to accommodate the projected fleet mix of larger container vessels anticipated to call at the Everport Container Terminal over the next two decades. The deployment of these larger vessels encourages fewer ship calls, reducing air emissions. “The completion of this project marks years of planning and perseverance through a…

Animal Food Contraband Smuggled Through LA/LB Ports at Record Levels: Customs

The seizures of prohibited meat products from China is continuing at levels never seen before at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport complex, according to a new report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In just the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, (October-December 2021) Customs agriculture specialists intercepted 262,237 pounds of prohibited pork, chicken, beef and duck products, a 33% increase from same period the year before, Customs data show. “This concerning uptrend began intensifying in fiscal year 2021, when in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the volume of prohibited animal products interdicted by CBP at the LA/LB Seaport…