US Army plans $14 billion for ports, waterways and climate help

The U.S. Army plans to invest more than $14 billion upgrading ports and waterways and helping coastal communities deal with extreme weather and natural disasters.

More than 500 projects across 52 states and territories are planned to improve decades of underinvestment and neglect that have left infrastructure vulnerable to climate change, the White House said in a statement Wednesday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will use about $4 billion of the $22.8 billion in supplemental funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act to address commercial-navigation improvements at coastal ports and on the inland waterway, it said in a separate statement. Another $5 billion will go toward “improving community resilience in the face of global climate change,” it said.

Ports have been a focus of the White House as the U.S. supply chain struggles under record demand for imports by American consumers. The Army’s plan to repair outdated infrastructure and expand port facilities for larger ships is part of the Biden administration’s plan to tackle logistics bottlenecks that have helped contribute to the hottest inflation in almost four decades.

About $3 billion from the disaster-relief legislation will go toward qualifying flood and storm-damage reduction, with half of the amount going to projects in four states that suffered damage from Hurricane Ida, the Army said.

Its plan also sees a record $1.1 billion going toward the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration program that will improve Everglades’ ecosystem.