Port of Los Angeles nets record $58 million for harbor maintenance
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced the Port of Los Angeles will receive an estimated $58 million in federal funding this year for maintaining its harbor channels and repairing its wharves, according to the company's release.
For more than a decade, the maritime industry has worked closely with federal lawmakers to craft an equitable compromise to address the imbalance and authorize eligibility for new, “expanded use” projects, including seismic upgrades, at donor ports, to ensure the built up balance of the HMTF was spent down, and that future spending would match the level of revenue collected each year. These efforts culminated in the passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 and the CARES Act, both 2020 laws that enacted these reforms.
The Port of Los Angeles estimates the total need for navigation maintenance and repair projects at $6.7 billion. In addition to dredging, pending projects include seismic safety upgrades, wharf and fender repairs, pile replacements, sediment removal and remediation, and improvements to slips and channels.
The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Importers pay a 0.125% tax on the value of their cargo to fund maintenance projects on the U.S.'s navigable waterways to ensure the safe flow of commerce. Enacted in 1986, the HMTF was initially limited in its use to maintenance dredging to maintain the authorized depth and width of federal navigation channels.
A handful of U.S. ports – most notably deep-water ports such as Los Angeles and Long Beach – contributed half of HMTF revenue, but recouped a mere 3% return due to their naturally deep harbors and lack of need for maintenance dredging projects. Over time, HMTF revenues outpaced spending and the fund built up a multibillion-dollar surplus.
The federal 2024 Fiscal Year allocation of approximately $58 million to the Port of Los Angeles is a nearly tenfold increase compared with $6 million it received in 2023 and marks the full implementation of these reforms. Previously longstanding inequities resulted in select U.S. ports generating half the revenue to the nation's Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund but seeing a negligible return in federal investment.
Other major U.S. ports benefiting from the new rules include the Port of Long Beach and the Port of New York and New Jersey.
The Port of Los Angeles is North America’s leading trade gateway and has ranked as the No. 1 container port in the United States for 24 consecutive years. In 2023, the Port generated $292 billion in trade and handled a total of 8.6 million container units, sustaining its top rank among U.S. ports. San Pedro Bay port complex operations and commerce facilitate one in nine jobs across the Southern California counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura.
