Marine highway projects get $4.8 million

Grants will enhance container-on-barge services in Louisiana, Virginia, New York and Connecticut.    The U.S. Maritime Administration has awarded $4.87 million in grants to six marine highway projects. 
   The funds will help expand existing marine highways programs serving the ports in Louisiana, Virginia, New York and Connecticut and support the development of new container-on-barge services in Kentucky and Rhode Island, MarAd said.
   MarAd’s Marine Highway Program was designed to promote the transport of marine containers on barges using the nation’s inland and coastal waterways and help alleviate road congestion.
   This round of grants provides $2,507,200 to a container-on-barge operation in Baton Rouge, La., for the expansion of the service to include New Orleans and Memphis, Tenn.; $855,200 to the Quonset Development Corp.’s planned twice-weekly service between Brooklyn, N.Y., Newark, N.J., and Rhode Island’s Port of Davisville; $456,000 to expand freight-handling capacity for an existing container-on-barge service at Virginia’s Richmond Marine Terminal; $298,423 to fund a marine highway study by the New York City Economic Development Corp.; $503,250 for the improvement of the Connecticut Port Authority’s Cross-Sound Ferry dock infrastructure; and $251,927 for the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority’s 18-month container-on-barge service demonstration.