MarAd promotes project streamlining initiative

MarAd promotes project streamlining initiative The U.S. Maritime Administration, with a little extra funding from Congress, could do more to help speed up port development projects by clearing away bureaucratic obstacles to permitting, the agency’s number two official said last month.
   MarAd last summer proposed the creation of a Port Improvement Enterprise Program that would allow the agency to pool federal, non-federal and private funds in an organized way and work to remove bureaucratic inertia from the approval process when multiple government entities are involved.
   Congress failed to authorize the program in the recent Maritime Administration Authorization Act, but did earmark some money for MarAd to help the Port of Guam develop its port as it prepares for the transfer of the U.S. military base in Okinawa to the Pacific island.
   Previous earmarks are also allowing MarAd to help the Port of Anchorage, Port of Philadelphia and Hawaii advance several projects.
   MarAd promotes waterborne transportation and regulates various aspect of vessel operations and shipbuilding.
   Elizabeth Megginson, acting deputy administrator, said the agency would like to take those successes and institutionalize the process through the Port Improvement Enterprise Program.
   Speaking at a port infrastructure and financing conference in Houston last month, Megginson said MarAd could help shave several years off the permitting process by acting as a facilitator with state and federal agencies, and making sure the decision-making process doesn’t stall out because of inter-agency hand-offs or indecisiveness of project managers.
   The funding would give MarAd the travel and administrative resources to help ports, she said.
   Skeptics say the Port Improvement Enterprise Program is dealing with relatively minor projects and that MarAd hasn’t addressed systemic funding and regulatory challenges facing port development. ' Eric Kulisch