LONGVIEW — The Port of Kalama plans to begin construction later this year on a $2 million electrified tugboat dock that it hopes will save more than 7 million gallons of fuel over the next decade.
The $2 million project is a collaboration between the port and tugboat businesses Shaver Transportation Company, which is supported by a $1.4 million port electrification grant from the Washington State Department of Transportation, according to an email from the port which included a quote from Director of Environmental Services Tabitha Reeder.
“Our collaboration with Shaver on this new tug dock is a great example of our port mission statement at work: inducing capital investment in an environmentally responsible manner to create jobs,” Reeder said.
The plans for a new 2,400-square-foot dock at the TEMCO grain terminal just passed SEPA environmental review last week, and construction should begin later this year.
According to project descriptions in environmental review filings that Reeder submitted to the state Department of Ecology on April 29, the dock will reduce travel distances for tugboat operators who live near the port, and will give up to two tugboats at a time the ability to connect to the local power grid while docked.
The tugboat dock will be stationed on the east bank of the Columbia at river mile 76.5 near 468 Elevator Drive and The Flipside restaurant. The port, as lead agency for the proposal, determined that it “does not have a probable significant adverse impact on the environment,” according to the state filing.
The filing details significant diesel and gasoline fuel savings of 707,740 gallons of fuel per year or 7,077,400 gallons over its first 10 years in operation.
To reach that conclusion, the port’s report drew estimates that tugboats spend an estimated 710 hours per year idling at the Port of Kalama to generate electricity.
The cost was partially covered by a $1.4 million Washington State Department of Transportation grant for port electrification funded for the 2023-25 biennium through Washington’s Climate Commitment Act.
“The availability of a land-based electricity source will allow tugs to moor at the dock and shut down both the main and auxiliary engines, saving approximately 4,150 gallons of diesel fuel per year,” the proposal states.
Docking at the Port of Kalama would also save travel time for tugboats, as well as commuting time for tugboat operators. It estimates that Shaver tugboats travel roughly 2½-hour travel time for a round-trip to Kalama from Rainier, Astoria or Portland.
Drawing from 2022 numbers counting an average of 37.5 tugboat assists per month at the Port of Kalama, the port calculates that local docking would save 4,470 hours of travel time in the tugboat and 350,895 gallons of diesel per tugboat per year.
For tugboat operators already living near the Port of Kalama, the local dock would save them about 23,000 miles of driving and 1,800 gallons of gasoline. The dock will include four upland parking spaces plus two electric vehicle charging stations.
The SEPA environmental checklist gives a schedule for the project of September through December. Pile driving on the project could begin in October if permits are approved, but that delays could push construction into the end of the year.
