Massachusetts Awards USD 150 Million for New Bedford and Salem Port Upgrades; Salem Site Could Support Floating Wind

Business & Finance

December 21, 2022, by Adrijana Buljan

On 20 December, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito announced the award of USD 180 million in funding for projects supporting offshore wind development, including USD 75 million for upgrades at the Port of New Bedford and USD 75 million for redevelopment of a site in Salem that could also support floating wind.

Of the USD 75 million for the Port of New Bedford, USD 15 million will go to the New Bedford Port Authority to extend its bulkhead and terminal space for the North Terminal, USD 45 million is earmarked for facility improvements at MassCEC’s New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, and another USD 15 million will go to New Bedford Foss Marine Terminal for the redevelopment of a site that will accommodate operations and terminal logistics facility to support offshore wind projects.

Further USD 75 million are going to Crowley to convert a vacant industrial port in Salem which, according to Lt. Governor Polito, will also support floating wind development in the northern part of Massachusetts.

As reported in October, Crowley bought 42 acres at the former Salem Harbor Station, which will be redeveloped and will serve as the future home of the Salem Harbor Wind Terminal, the second major offshore wind port terminal in the state.

The Salem Harbor Wind Terminal is a public-private partnership signed between Crowley and the city of Salem, with AVANGRID serving as the port’s anchor tenant through its Commonwealth Wind and Park City Wind projects.

Furthermore, the Massachusetts government awarded USD 25 million to Prysmian for the construction of its offshore wind cable manufacturing facility in Somerset.

The Italy-based company purchased a site at Brayton Point in Somerset from Commercial Development Company (CDC) at the beginning of this year.

The site, which housed a now-closed coal-fired power plant, will soon become home to the factory valued at a total of USD 200 million which will deliver cables for the Commonwealth Wind and Park Wind City offshore wind farms, as well as other offshore wind projects on the U.S. East Coast.

Massachusetts also awarded USD 360,000 to Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding for shipyard upgrades to enable their Somerset facility to fabricate and repair aluminum high-speed crew transfer vessels (CTVs), and USD 4.6 million to Shoreline Marine Terminal for the build-out of new berthing space, bulkheads, and piers for offshore wind crew transfer and other vessels.