The very good news is that our next president has just declared his commitment to a $1 trillion program to “rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals.”
The optimist would believe that the failure to mention ports in this particular, widely publicized statement was a mere oversight. Those less optimistic would lament that this is simply the latest slight in a long history of neglect of ports. (“Neglect” may not be strong enough to describe the aftermath of the groundbreaking WRDA legislation of 1986, finally establishing a means to fund the maintenance of our port system, only to see an uncomfortable portion of money collected used instead to help balance the budget.)
Our next president will look to private financing to create, at least in part, this new wave of infrastructure, unlike previous administrations that encouraged the shifting of responsibility for port development to state and local governments. Long abandoned is that notion that public ports can charge their customers enough to fund costly infrastructure projects that those same customers demand, especially but certainly not limited to channel deepening. So while this concept of private financing may work in unique situations, especially in the private side of the port industry, it faces a heavy burden of history in supporting growing public port infrastructure needs.
Ports are not glamorous by any means, and frankly, usually gain widespread attention only when something “bad” happens (labor disputes, congestion, Hanjin). The hope is that US ports can view 2017 as a fresh start, establishing themselves to a new administration as the critical conduits, the only conduits in most cases, for the millions of tons of product that sustains our economic well-being and frankly, our way of life.