New Bedford celebrated the opening of the North Terminal expansion Tuesday on the city’s waterfront.
The expansion is one of the main elements of a decade-long redevelopment plan for the Port of New Bedford, and it aims to serve multiple industries, including commercial fishing and offshore wind.
The project added about 5.5 acres to the terminal and 660 feet of new bulkhead along the water. The bulkhead is now 965 feet long.
Federal, state, and local officials gathered at the terminal for a ribbon cutting.
Gordon Carr, executive director of the New Bedford Port Authority, said the expanded terminal will strengthen the port’s competitiveness.
“In the port world, there's a truism that waterfront industrial property needs to be preserved at all costs, because they're not making any more of it,” he said. “And while I tend to agree with that, today, welcome to New Bedford, because we did make more of it.”
He said the port plans to seek proposals from prospective terminal users.
The terminal offers direct rail access and a 56,000 square-foot warehouse once used for the Superfund cleanup of New Bedford Harbor.
David Cash, New England regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the terminal is a model of how to marry economic development with environmental stewardship.
“It's a win for the environment, a win for a just transition to a clean energy future, a win for the economy, and a win for the people who live and work here,” he said.
Planning the work and getting it funded took years. Securing a federal Department of Transportation grant of $15.6 million took three tries, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said. The grant became the largest of several funding sources for the nearly $43 million project.
Mitchell said the terminal fits with New Bedford's strategy to make the most of its advantages and compete effectively.
“We compete to win,” he said. “Our goal is to be the best, the top, commercial fishing port in America, and the best and the top offshore wind port in America, and to be good at a whole lot of other stuff. So … when we say we compete to win, we do that.”
The opening celebration included remarks by Mitchell, Carr, Cash, U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, U.S. Maritime Administration Regional Administrator Tom Morkan, state Rep. Christopher Hendricks, and New Bedford City Council President Naomi Carney.
As they spoke, protesters who oppose offshore wind stood along Herman Melville Boulevard, holding signs that showed an image of a wind turbine with a red circle and a slash through it.
Lauren Knight, a Marion resident and volunteer with the group Green Oceans, said wind opponents were not allowed into the event, which was several hundred feet away and out of view.
