Oregon lawmakers send $100 million to Coos Bay channel dredging in preparation for shipping terminal

By KYRA BUCKLEY/Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Port of Coos Bay is a small step closer to building a major international shipping terminal, which supporters say will create 2,500 permanent jobs on the south coast.

Oregon lawmakers allocated $100 million to widen and deepen the channel so it’s accessible to cargo ships as part of its “Christmas tree” legislation that allocated money to capital projects around the state. The money for dredging was a priority for Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, whose district stretches to Coos County.

“That’s about 20% of the funding that’s needed altogether to make the dredging occur,” Melissa Cribbins, executive director of the project, told OPB. “But it was very much needed — and it shows a really important state investment in this project.”

Since land underneath the channel is owned by the state, lawmakers used bond money earmarked for state-owned assets, Cribbins said.

The project could create as many as 2,500 permanent jobs and another 2,500 temporary construction positions.

Advocates hope the terminal will encourage a surge of economic development in the region, offering relief to an area that never fully recovered from the timber industry’s exit.

Opponents of the project point to negative environmental effects from dredging and question the need for such a service.

However, the state and federal government have signaled support for the development.

While more funding is needed to complete the international shipping terminal, Cribbins said it’s scored three federal grants in the last 9 months. Together they total nearly $60 million, which will go toward designs for the rail terminal, upgrades to Coos Bay’s rail line and changes to a rail crossing on Highway 38 in Reedsport.

The project is expected to go through two more years of engineering and planning, Cribbins said. She hopes construction will start in time for the terminal to open in 2030.

“These early large investments are very important to make that happen,” she said. “It signals to the carriers and the shippers that this project is moving forward, and that it will be an option for moving goods in just 5 years, which is not actually that far away.”