Helen Delich Bentley, former Congresswoman, past Federal Maritime Commission chair and tireless champion of the port and maritime industries, passed away August 6 at her home in Timonium, Maryland. She was 92. The cause of death was brain cancer.

Hatch Ltd. is an engineering/construction firm with more than six decades of business and technical experience in the mining, energy and infrastructure sectors. Contact: Hatch Ltd., 2800 Speakman Drive, Mississauga, ON L5K 2R7, CANADA.  Phone: (905) 855-7600. Email: infocentre@hatch.ca. Website: www.hatch.com. (AAPA Sustaining Member)

The World Trade Center of New Orleans announced August 5 this year’s recipient of the Eugene J. Schreiber Award is Gary LaGrange, PPM®, president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded the Port of Everett a $10 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant.  The federal money will help complete the port’s South Terminal modernization project, enabling the port to handle components used in the production of Boeing’s new 777X aircraft.

Cordele Intermodal Services (CIS), Georgia's first inland terminal, is collaborating with Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) to handle up to 30,000 containers per year to supply the Kia manufacturing plant in West Point. KMMG will move auto parts from the Port of Savannah to Cordele by rail and then to West Point by motor carrier.  A new rail spur has given the Port of Oshawa competitive access to the project cargo market, opening the door to cargo of all shapes and sizes, including a 100-ton motor compressor bound for South Africa from an exporter in central Ontario.

The Mississippi State Port Authority at Gulfport has amended its lease agreement with Island View Casino Resort by modifying the percentage the port authority receives from Island View’s gross income. Doing so will allow Island View to secure funding for an additional gaming project.

The Port of Hueneme received its first neo-Panamaxer with the August 5 docking Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines’ brand new HERO-class ro/ro ship, M/V Thalatta. These vessels offer greater cargo capacity and flexibility and lower pollutant emissions than pre-expansion Panamax size ro/ro ships. The first of a new class of neo-Panamax container vessels called the Port of Philadelphia on August 3, launching a new phase of transport along the Delaware River. MSC Sophia Celeste, an 8,819 TEU vessel operated by the Mediterranean Shipping Company, is the first to trade in MSC’s newly reconfigured South America West Coast/USA/Northwest Continent service.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public comment on the newly released Seattle Harbor Navigation Improvement Project Draft Feasibility Report and Environmental Assessment.  The tentatively selected plan calls for depths of 57 feet Mean Lower Low Water for the Seattle port’s East and West Waterways.

Environmental requirements that came into effect last week for container trucks serving the Port of Vancouver will have an immediate impact on air quality and public health in the densely populated Lower Mainland, according to the port authority.

Mid-year results are steady for the Port of Houston Authority.  "Container volume continues to be very resilient, topping well over one million TEUs through the first six months of the year," said Executive Director Roger Guenther in his July 26 report to Houston Port Commission. Mexico’s port system processed nearly 144.2 million metric tons of cargo during first half 2016, about the same as last year, according to preliminary data reported by Coordinación General de Puertos y Marina Mercante.