PORT REPORT 2018
SUMMER
PORT OF ASTORIA
AT THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
www.portofastoria.com
Pier 2:
The USS Portland arrives
at the Port of Astoria
in April 2018.
Weathering the
wait after the storm
Interview: Matt McGrath,
Director of Port Operations, Port of Astoria
he Port of Astoria’s Central Waterfront has
three major piers where various enterprises
have plied their trade over the last century.
The aging docks are as ubiquitous as the ships
and workers that transport the various
products and raw materials all over the world.
Pier 2, like its next door cousins, is a relic from
the past, a legacy of the “Greatest Generation” which fought in
WWII but also built the infrastructure across the US during the
1940s to support the larger war effort. The Pier 2 “manifest sheet”
reads from the annals of history and has seen its share of logging
ships, troop carriers, cruise ships, and more recently a brief visit
from the USS Portland, a new naval class of ships to fight the war
on terrorism.
Pier 2 has seen better days. It suffers from around the clock,
continuous tidal action along the Columbia River, periodic but
frequent storms off the Pacific, and the omnipresent North Coast climate, which is a powerful punch of
Mother Nature and regular wear and tear from ship traffic. It’s a critical piece of infrastructure that is on
life support borrowing time before the next storm inflicts more damage. The symptoms are insidious
erosion of the “substructure” that supports the pilings, decking that is inadequate for most cars, let alone
truck loads, and fire trucks and pilings that are subsiding and need regular inspections and replacement.
As Matt McGrath, Director of Operations said recently, “this is pure and simple, a public safety necessity
to ensure the infrastructure can do its full-time job.” Without a functional system of infrastructure in place,
it becomes difficult to encourage long-term investment in Port property to rebuild or expand facilities,
create new jobs, increase product distribution, and for the Port to generate substantial revenue to reinvest
in the same infrastructure and operations.
Pier 2 is also a lead actor in an export-focused local economy that supports hundreds of jobs in the
fish processing industry. The Port has three major seafood processing tenants - Bornstein Seafoods,
DaYang Seafoods and Astoria Pacific Seafoods. This industry has seen tremendous growth over the last
decade. This industry is also a key driver in the local economy and is a “batch” business sector for future
growth identified in Advance Astoria, the city’s economic development strategy. For any strategy and
business to be successful, there needs to be social, human, and physical capital working together in
concert. When one of those critical pieces is not there, the business can fail or it can look elsewhere to
operate. The fish processing industry like any other industry, must have the infrastructure in place to be
sustainable and successful over time.
T
The diagnosis for Pier 2 is a complete replacement of the decking
and precise replacement of substructure and pilings based on
exacting marine engineering and erosion control. In 2016 the Port
was awarded a $1.6M Connect VI grant from the Oregon Department
of Transportation (ODOT) to replace the decking and has been
working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
to use up to $1.8M to replace failing substructure components that
were damaged from the 2015 storm. The Port has worked tirelessly
with FEMA on determining the scale of the project - the areas that
were damaged by the 2015 storm, compared to normal wear and
tear, and conducting engineering studies to determine the best
approach to rebuilding Pier 2. Matt McGrath says more than anything
else it takes patience to get all of the required paperwork to FEMA
before the project can be bid by local contractors. “The waiting game
is tortuous and takes loads of perseverance to weather the storm
after the real one.” Three years in from the 2015 storm, the Port hopes
to weather the storm of paperwork and have everything lined up for
construction in 2019. Hopefully, Pier 2 has a little more patience in it
and can wait for a much-needed shot in the arm.
The diagnosis for
Pier 2 is a complete
replacement of the
decking and precise
replacement of
substructure and
pilings based on
exacting marine
engineering and
erosion control.