By KYRA BUCKLEY/Oregon Public Broadcasting
The Port of Coos Bay has a big vision to make international shipping the heart of the south coast’s economic revival.
The Pacific Coast Intermodal Port project would create a massive deep-water terminal where cargo ships drop off shipping containers up to 40 feet long, full of goods from around the globe.
But the Port needs more than $2 billion to bring the project to life. On Monday, the federal government agreed to pitch in the largest pool of funds yet at nearly $205 million. The money is for the Coos Bay Rail Line, which would carry the shipping containers from the port to market.
“It’s our first really large construction grant,” Melissa Cribbins, executive director for the project, told OPB. “The rail line is 111 miles from Coos Bay almost to Eugene — and, of course, it was built over 100 years ago. There’s been improvements done along the way, but there’s significant improvements needed in order to handle container volumes.”
The grant will fund final design and construction work on the Coos Bay Rail Line, connecting the planned international container terminal to the national freight rail network. According to the port, the grant is among the largest awards in this year’s U.S. Department of Transportation’s rail infrastructure program and represents the PCIP’s first major federal award supporting construction.
The works include improvements to track, bridges and tunnels, alongside new sidings and turnarounds and the installation of controls to accommodate double-stack container trains and provide capacity for the future terminal. The project is being developed through a public-private partnership between the port and NorthPoint Development, which is leading the marine terminal development.
International trade is a major pillar of Oregon’s current economy. In a typical year, the state exports more than $30 billion worth of goods, like computer chips, fertilizer and wheat, to global markets.
And in recent years, the state has imported more than $25 billion worth of goods from other countries. Imports include parts for the technology, automotive and construction industries, as well as consumer goods like furniture and toys. Many of those products go in and out of Oregon in large shipping containers.
Leaders both along the coast and in Salem hope that a container terminal in Coos Bay, which will take years and more funding before coming online, will help leverage that trade as an economic spark for the region. The only major shipping container terminal in the state is in Portland, more than 200 miles from Coos Bay.
Cribbins said the proposed Coos Bay terminal is already well positioned for the project.
Environmental advocates in Oregon have long opposed the act of dredging due to concerns about how it will affect wildlife. Opponents of the PCIP project instead want regional leaders to focus on industries like healthcare and tourism, rather than international trade.
Proponents point to the 2,500 permanent jobs and 2,500 temporary construction jobs the project could bring to the area. At around 15,000 residents, Coos Bay is the largest city on the Oregon coast in a county of just over 60,000 people. Coos County’s unemployment rate is hovering around 5.6%, slightly above the state average of 5%.
Beyond the potential jobs, proponents hope the project will usher in a wave of investment and development to grow economic opportunities in the region, which has never fully bounced back from timber’s decline.
“PCIP will create good-paying jobs, strengthen our state’s supply chains, and unlock new opportunities for trade and industry,” Gov. Tina Kotek, who is running for reelection, said in an emailed statement about the federal funding. “This investment, building on previous state support, will deliver lasting prosperity that builds stronger communities for generations to come.”
Before the U.S. Department of Transportation award for the rail line, the PCIP project had garnered around $70 million in previous federal funding through four different grant programs. The state of Oregon has kicked in another $160 million. NorthPoint Development, a private company that would operate the shipping container terminal, has put up a $25 million investment in the project.
Cribbins said it takes a long time, and a lot of funding sources, to complete a large infrastructure project like this one.
Next steps include selecting contractors to help with the lengthy permitting and review process. Proposals from contractors are due Oct. 28. After that, the project will go through environmental reviews and receive public comment.
Despite the challenges, though, Cribbins said this project is desperately needed. Cribbins went to high school in Coos Bay as timber jobs fled the state. She describes watching mill closures that forced people out of work. She recalls the ripple effect of people leaving the community, and schools and businesses closing.
Cribbins herself left for a period of time and obtained a law degree before moving back to the area to raise her family.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for our economy,” said Cribbins, who served as a Coos County commissioner before taking over the PCIP project. “And a chance to bring, honestly, some of those middle class families back with good wage jobs and benefits and an opportunity to raise their kids here.”
- The Lincoln Chronicle contributed to this report.
Coos Bay Railroad Project
As a former late night, Disc Jockey from the Coos Bay area (another time, long ago and far away – back when KOOS was a 250 Watt AM “Run Down at Sundown” station); I thought I would chime in briefly on the railroad aspects of the Pacific Coast Intermodal Port Project and Kyra Buckley’s informative and historically fascinating article in the Lincoln Chronicle (October 20th 2026).
The “Pacific Coast Intermodal Port Project” is a long overdue “Step in the Right Direction” for a unique Deep Water Port region along the Oregon (and Continental U.S.) coast. Over the decades, various ideas have popped-up guesstimating some service or another which might provide the right industry with a logical and profitable facility. After popping up, followed by a few headlines, they would fade away. Let’s hope the PCIPP can tough it out until that first Freight Train, loaded from Engine to Caboose with Containers fresh off their Pacific Voyage can start chugging its way inland!
Ffrom my perspective the most important point or “Suggestion” as the first Container Freight is heading out towards Eugene, Portland and all points East, there may just be a valuable Railroad Construction Resource, standing around, asking itself, “What do we do now?” How about looking around a bit for a possible generous soul. Perhaps, someone who grew up playing with trains, is now a multi-billionaire and occasionally gives out “grants” to communities and organizations looking fund a special project.
Hmmm? And, just what might that project be?
The southern portion of the generic “Coos Bay Rail Line” historically ran from Coos Bay (Marshfield), down through Coquille and Myrtle Point toward Powers. It was primarily used for local timber operations (e.g., Coos Bay Lumber Company and Smith-Powers), to transport logs down to the Lumber Mills and/or Shipping Port.
Although the overall Powers branch is for all practical purposes “out of service” and/or “abandoned” and much of the Right-of-Way may be overgrown or otherwise obstructed, the possibility is there for restoration and future resurrection as a profitable tourist railroad. Fortunately, the original “Line” has been preserved (to some extent) on historical maps, local logging records, and Oregon Department of Geology.
Along with its “history”, the route has everything one could ask for in the tourist train scenario. The geography and foliage are fantastic and beautiful. There are small towns along the way for possible stops and which in all likelihood would be able to add to the value of the out and back trip.
There must be someone out there with a few extra bucks who wouldn’t mind having their name associated with a railroad?
I’m not one of these people who thinks the “free market” ought to decide our whole lives, but I still feel like if this plan were economical or smart, it would’ve happened already. Say you’re a shipper. Why would you not just use Portland? From Coos Bay, you can travel 111 rail miles just to get to Eugene. Eugene! From Portland, you can travel 0 rail miles and be in PORTLAND, already at the intersection of major Class 1 rail lines and interstate highways heading off in all directions. Even if you’re already in Eugene, sitting in your train or truck, and your destination is Boise, Salt Lake City, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York… guess where you’re going first. Portland.
I read the linked OPB article, which has the sentence “The only other such service in the state is more than 200 miles away in Portland.” Yeah, or another way to look at that is, “This proposed port upgrade is 200 miles out in the boonies, away from the center of shipping.” The thing this port used to be close to, and useful for, was the timber. End of story.
To be fair, I guess I should acknowlege there’s the hassle of the Columbia Bar to think of, and the extra 90 nautical miles upriver to get to Portland. Maybe Coos Bay could compete on that basis. But the big volumes of shipping that happen every year, that are cited in each one of these articles, are successfully being shipped, now, from this upriver port behind a bigass sediment bar so… I guess I need more convincing.
Forget the environmental argument, there isn’t even a good answer for who would benefit from this. The south coast itself will go into debt building this boondoggle and shippers might still just use Portland. I’ve got nothing against a revival of the area, but my friends, the path is inevitably forward, to something you probably haven’t even pictured yet, and not back to the timber shipping heyday of the 1980s that Gen X and Boomers remember. But if I’m wrong I’ll be pleasantly surprised.