Port of Fernandina receives $1.3M grant from USDOT

Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
January 5, 2020

Action News Jax has reported that a $1.3M Department of Transportation grant to the Port of Fernandina could potentially take semi-truck traffic off local roads by loading them onto barges.

The Port qualified for this grant through its designation in 2019 as a marine federal highway.

Congressman John Rutherford, who represents Florida’s 4th District,  sent out the following tweet:

2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Thomas Lohman
Thomas Lohman (@guest_56392)
4 years ago

Will this grant, when implemented, increase truck traffic on SR 200 (eighth street)? If so, who is paying for the increased costs due to increased use of the road?

Frank Quigley
Frank Quigley(@frank-quigley)
4 years ago

On April 1, 2019, this news blog described a visit by Wilbur Ross, regarding the (then) effort to get this designation and $$. The article included this pull-quote from FB port promotional materials: “The Port of Fernandina is a rail-served, natural deep water port on the Atlantic seaboard, just 2.2 miles from the open ocean. It handles a variety of cargoes, including steel, aluminum, machinery, paper and forest products and consumer goods. It has 250,000 square-feet of on-site warehouse space, 100,000+ square-feet off-port, and 10 acres of open storage, all which sits minutes away from a new six-lane A1A/SR 200 highway enabling easy access to both Interstates 95 and 10.”

Same language used to reside on the port’s website and press releases. It’s since been scrubbed. This all begs the question, if a merchant desires for cargo to end up in Brunswick why not ship it directly there? The real selling point of the point is access to I-95 and I-10, via hwy 200.