Photo credit: Sanja Gjenero

It’s quite a list: Port Manatee. The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority. The New Haven Port Authority. The Port of Providence. Quonset Business Park. The Port of New Bedford. And it goes on and on.

Nearly 100 ports across the United States applied for federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants this summer. In all they asked for $3.38 billion — which is more than twice the amount of money in the entire funding program. [Click here to download applicant analysis.] That type of competition can’t be good for the emerging Marine Highway program, right?

Not so fast, says Stephen Pepper, president of Humboldt Maritime Logistics. “All of these separate projects are in different regions, but they provide the mechanism for communities to define their own Marine Highway goals,” he says. “Those pieces could then help create a Marine Highway network on a national scale. They become an example to national policy makers who say, “Look — this is taking off on its own. We don’t have to initiate it, just support it.”

“It’s all about creating the infrastructure that will rejuevinate America’s small ports as key components of our national transportation system,” he says.

About 1,380 applicants requested $57 billion worth of grant’s from the Department of Transportation’s TIGER program. According to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a “cross-modal evaluation process” will be used to evaluate projects based on factors such as fuel and travel time savings, carbon emission reductions and economic and public health benefits.

Expect an answer relatively soon: Winning projects will be announced by Feb. 17.