The Port of Newport has received its first grant toward rehabilitating its international shipping terminal. The $2 million grant from the federal Department of Transportation will be used to leverage more money from state sources to finish a shipping facility, port officials said Thursday.
While there are pending upgrades to Highway 20, the terminal doesn’t have convenient access to them. The $6.5 million shipping facility project would connect the ocean port with the Columbia River and highway.
After the port builds the 10-acre facility, officials want to lease it to a private operator, who would service agricultural producers from the mid-Willamette Valley and shuttle waste paper material from southern California.
