Funding gap leaves N.B. marine terminal in limbo

Even by the deliberate standards of ocean cargo shipping, progress building a new marine commerce terminal on the New Bedford waterfront has been slow moving.
A lynchpin of efforts to boost New Bedford’s profile as a domestic and international cargo port, the terminal was thought to be on a fast track when it was chosen in 2010 as the future staging area for the Cape Wind offshore wind farm project in Nantucket Sound. At that point, the terminal was scheduled to open in 2012.
But nothing connected with the construction of Cape Wind, which has been in the planning and permitting stages for a decade, has happened quickly.
Despite unwavering support from Gov. Deval L. Patrick and agreements from Nstar and National Grid to buy roughly three-quarters of the wind farm’s electricity, Cape Wind remains a question mark because of financing challenges, complaints about the cost of the electricity and tireless legal appeals from a well-funded, local opposition.
Massachusetts and New Bedford officials maintain that demand for use of the terminal from shipping companies exists to make it viable without Cape Wind, but the wind farm remains the first expected tenant and the project’s uncertainty has put the construction timeline for the terminal up in the air.
Patrick has committed $35 million in state money to build the terminal, but the total cost is estimated at $50 million and no funding source has been identified to make up that $15 million gap.
“The New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal is being developed to serve as a multipurpose [terminal] that will service both the delivery, assembly, and installation of offshore wind turbines, as well as shipping and other commercial activities,” said Kate Plourd, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which is heading up work on the terminal for the Patrick administration. “The Patrick-Murray administration’s current capital plan includes $29 million for the terminal, and [the Clean Energy Center] board has authorized up to $6 million in its current budget, but the total contribution will depend on the amount and availability of funding from other sources.”
Asked what those other funding sources might be, Plourd declined to comment, but said they are not dependent on Cape Wind.
“Yes, the state will move ahead with the project regardless of Cape Wind,” Plourd said. New Bedford hosted a trade summit last fall to help drum up interest in using the city and commerce terminal as a cargo port and Plourd said the city has received “numerous inquiries” from shipping companies.
Planned for roughly 20 acres of now unused land on the southern end of the working waterfront, the Marine Commerce Terminal will include a new 1,200-linear-foot reinforced bulkhead that will make it possible to install cargo cranes and boost New Bedford’s capacity to offload large pieces of freight.
Along with providing dockage and loading space for ships heading out to the turbines, the terminal will also provide Cape Wind with open space for the assembly and storage of the turbine components from Siemens.
For deep-water access to the terminal, the project will also include a new round of dredging.
The state has estimated that while construction of Cape Wind is in full swing, the terminal will have between 600 and 1,000 people working there.
In addition to putting New Bedford on the offshore wind-industry map through Cape Wind, the terminal is expected to make the city more competitive with other cargo ports in the region, including the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown and the Port of Providence.
Unlike the Narragansett Bay ports, the size of vessels New Bedford can land is limited by the width of the entrance to the hurricane barrier at the mouth of the harbor.
“It is an integral part of what we are trying to do, not just in short-sea shipping, but in international cargo as well,” said Edward Washburn, the acting port director and executive director of the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission. As for Cape Wind itself, the current best-case scenario is for New Bedford to start receiving shipments of parts for the 130 turbines “at some point next year,” said spokesman Mark Rogers. Construction is expected to last more than two years.
Cape Wind opponents say because of the 11 appeals or lawsuits challenging the project, uproar over the cost of electricity from the turbines and challenges to find financing, the wind farm will never be built.
But Rogers is confident Cape Wind will be built and for that to happen the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal will need to be up and running before turbine assembly can begin. •

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