Palm Beach port completes $30M infrastructure program

The Port of Palm Beach, in Riviera Beach, Florida, on Monday marked the completion its multiyear $30 million port infrastructure development program (PIDP).

Completed six months ahead of schedule, the program included an entire rehabilitation of 6.5 miles of onsite rail track, according to a port press release. The PIDP also called for expanding freight-rail capacity at the port. The Florida Department of Transportation and U.S. Maritime Administration provided funding for the PIDP, they added. 

Additionally, the port redesigned and automated its main truck entrance, expanded truck lanes and installed radiation portal monitors, port officials said. As a result of the improvements, truck wait times have lowered 50%, said , Port of Palm Beach Executive Director Michael Meekins.

The 165-acre port processes more than 2.8 million tons of cargo annually. Florida East Coast Railway (FEC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Grupo Mexico Transportes, provides direct intermodal rail service to the port and interchanges with CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway.