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WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina stopped by the state port facility in Wilmington, hearing from North Carolina Ports Executive Director Brian Clark on the impacts of the $10.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

According to a release from the senator’s office, the funding is “..going towards constructing 4,000 feet of elevated roadway access to the general cargo terminal, relocating the North Gate security checkpoint, improving existing at-grade railroad crossings, constructing a truck queuing area, and a new badging office to include EV charging infrastructure”.

“I saw good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Sen. Tillis said in an interview with WECT News following the tour. “We’ve had two grants there, the more recent one that’s focused on the intermodal facility, moving things from trains to boats and vice versa. But what I saw were people being good stewards of the taxpayer dollar and returning 1X on every dollar that we’re investing in that port, where we’ve seen tremendous growth over the last 10 or 12 years.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the early process of looking at the feasibility, benefits, cost, and environmental impacts of deepening the harbor channel from 42 to 47 feet, which Sen. Tillis says is needed to keep the Wilmington port as a future option for the newer, larger cargo ships.

“Right now with the equipment and the depth that we have in the channel, we’re able to provide services to about 85 percent of any ship on the high seas,” Sen. Tillis said after the tour. “But the number of larger ships, post-Panama Canal, is growing, and we need about five more feet of draft in the channel to support them. We already have the infrastructure, they’ve invested in the right cranes to load and offload. So I think that’s the next phase. We’ll get all the approvals and help get the funding to make Wilmington able to service any ship that is sailing on the high seas.”