Wilmington port's oldest wharf to get $9.8M overhaul

The Port of Wilmington is preparing for a $9.8 million rehabilitation of a nearly century-old cargo ship berth, a project largely financed with a federal grant awarded in 2012.

Port Director Gene Bailey said members of the port's governing Diamond State Port Corp. have tentatively approved a contract for the work, pending resolution of one agreement detail.

Wilmington's upgrade is moving ahead as other major Delaware port proposals are in the works both north and south.

Owners of the former Evraz Claymont Steel plant are expected to include an option for waterfront and port development along the Delaware at a public meeting Wednesday night to share options for a major redevelopment of the site, according to county and state officials.

A summary released Wednesday afternoon noted that the proposed First State Logistics Center portion of the plan will include a "one-mile bulkhead and multi-modal logistics center for port, rail, and truck logistics."

Backers of a proposed container port south of the Delaware Memorial Bridge also are seeking state funds for environmental studies needed to position that project for private financing solicitations, said County Executive Tom Gordon.

At the existing Port of Wilmington, plans call for restoring 605 feet of the port's original wharf, built in 1922 and now at risk of collapsing into the Christina River if weakened piles are left untended. The project also will extend heavy-load track needed to expand waterside areas accessible to rail-mounted cranes.

Similar work is planned afterward for Berth 6, the other original half of the same wharf complex at the 308-acre port.

"You have a facility that was built in the '20s, so it's tough," Delaware Economic Development Office Director Alan Levin said Wednesday. "It has to be done right, and we just had some minor issues" that delayed final approval of the contract earlier this month.

Delaware officials originally sought $20 million from the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant program, to help finance a more-elaborate, $35 million wharf overhaul that would have entirely replaced Berth 5 and repaired Berth 6. The state later scaled back the project, receiving a $10 million grant instead.

In a separate development, Levin said that port directors have delayed approval of a strategic planning study contract while seeking authority from the General Assembly to pay for the study using $250,000 that had been earmarked for other work.

The study would explore options for using remaining space at the existing port along the Christina River and for adding deeper-water capabilities along the adjacent Delaware River. Some auto-carriers, cattle-export ships and other vessels already call on Wilmington by way of a long Delaware River pier originally built for now-discontinued imports of Volkswagens.

Last year's Bond Bill authorized $250,000 for work on permits needed to move operations onto the Delaware, but Levin said port directors want to first consider all expansion options. They also want legislator direction on how other nearby port proposals should figure in decisions.

New Castle County is supporting efforts announced in July to develop a privately-financed new container port just south of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, in what is now the Riveredge Industrial Park off Cherry Lane. No new details on financing, markets or timetables have been released since the announcement, however.

"I think it's important that we have a strategic plan, regardless of what does or doesn't come" in the way of competing port developments, Levin said.

Wilmington presently ranks as the world's top banana port, the nation's biggest fruit and juice concentrate importer and the operator of the country's largest dock-side refrigeration business.

But dredging to stay ahead of constant silt buildups in the Christina River have become a major expense, and officials worry shallow water in the Christina could eventually encourage shippers to go elsewhere.

Engineers currently figure on scooping away 750,000 cubic yards from Wilmington's harbor and approaches each year just to stay ahead of the problem – enough to cover 140 football fields annually to a depth of 3 feet.

Attention to the issue has increased with expansion of new port capabilities around Philadelphia and along the Delaware River in New Jersey, and with the planned 2017 completion of a dredging project that will deepen the Delaware's main shipping channel to 45 feet from its current 40-foot limit.

Contact Jeff Montgomery at (302) 463-3344 or jmontgomery@delawareonline.com.