The Port of Benton is full steam ahead as it works to make improvements for the trains, planes and boats that use its infrastructure. 

“We’re not letting up on the gas on anything,” said Ron Branine, the port’s interim executive director. 

Rail priorities

After working in previous years to update several rail crossings and replace around 4,000 rail ties, the port is ready to further elevate its rail system. 

Its last round of improvements brought train speeds up from 5 miles per hour to 10, and people seem to have noticed a difference, said Brandin Lopez, the port’s engineering and development manager. 

Recent work at the intersection of Steptoe Street and Tapteal Drive helped improve the port’s rail crossing there. It’s the port’s longest crossing at over 200 linear feet, Lopez said, and the whole crossing was replaced and new concrete panels, new gates and controls installed. A new car counter will allow the port to receive valuable data about the trains passing through. 

While the road work was funded by a private developer, the port oversaw the rail work and helped fund some of the design, fiber installation and project management. 

Now, as the port continues to improve its rail lines, the organization is close to securing a $9.56 million federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, or BUILD, grant for its White Bluffs Southern Connection Rail Line Rehabilitation Project. 

The port will match the grant with $2.4 million for a total of around $12 million.

Lopez said it’s one of the largest projects the port has undertaken. 

The project would replace about 10,000 of the 48,000 rail ties the port has in its rail system. Track also will be replaced where it travels across the Yakima River delta, updating the 90-pound rail to 136-pound rail. The project will help “improve the safety, increase the speeds, and basically make the corridor a little bit more connected,” Lopez said. Train speeds then can be boosted to 15 or 20 miles per hour, he said. 

The Battelle Boulevard signal control system will be replaced and other parts of the port’s rail system will be upgraded. An additional $2.5 million award will allow the port to install some additional spurs for development north of 2579 Stevens Drive. 

Lopez said the port hopes to go to bid in the first quarter of 2027 and start construction in the second quarter. The project is expected to last two years, with some parts moving more quickly than others. Ties might be installed in a month, he said, while inspections or long lead times for materials may drag out.  

Stevens Drive office

The port is also getting closer to kickoff on a project to replace some office space in the building at 2579 Stevens Drive. The rail facility’s offices are outdated and have been in need of renovation, but it turned out to be cheaper to tear down and rebuild the offices, Lopez said. 

The port has secured a $2.4 million Community Economic Revitalization Board, or CERB, loan for the project, along with $1.7 million in Benton County Rural County Capital Funds and $1.3 million in port investment. 

The new building will be at 2501 Stevens Drive and it will be about 13,000 square feet, though it’s still in its design phase. About 6,000 square feet would be for the office space – about the same size as the existing space – while another 6,000 square feet would be reserved as flex space. 

The decision to build separately from the industrial space also allows the offices to meet certain building standards without having to make unnecessary upgrades to the rest of the facility, Lopez said. 

Construction would start in the second quarter of 2027 and finish about a year later.  

High dock electrification

The port is taking steps to improve its shoreline infrastructure by adding power to its high dock. 

A $2.7 million Washington State Department of Transportation grant, plus a $300,000 local match, is providing the funding for the electrification, which will allow boats at the dock to turn off their engines and connect to power. 

To bring the power down, the port is building a dock as well, Lopez said, increasing the port’s moorage. Most of the vessels that come through are industrial users, like tugboats pushing barges. 

The project is currently going through the permitting process to ensure compliance with several different entities. Once the project is approved, there will be a fairly narrow window to do the work that has to take place in the water. The work has to take place during the wintertime in just a few months due to fish and wildlife restrictions. 

That means the port is hoping to start work at the end of 2027, with the land-based work taking place either before or after the water work. 

The Prosser Airport recently underwent pavement maintenance work, above, and a light replacement project to improve safety.

| Courtesy Port of Benton

Airport improvements

The port’s infrastructure covers not just land and water transportation, but air, too. The port owns both the Prosser and Richland airports. 

At Prosser, work has wrapped up on pavement maintenance and a light replacement project several years in the making, said Quentin Wright, airport manager. It was a $2.7 million project funded by the Federal Aviation Administration and helped replace lighting that was 40 years old with LED lights. 

The improvement is noticeable: Wright said that in the past, pilots could only see the airport’s lights within about two miles. Now, pilots are able to turn the lights on and see them from 15 miles away, increasing safety and usability. 

The Richland Airport is next to see some much-needed improvements. A $1.2 million main apron reconfiguration project that was underway this fall is helping to fix issues that date back to the airport’s start in the 1940s, Wright said. 

There are areas of thin pavement that need to be brought up to modern standards, so the port is milling some old pavement, removing old tie downs, then adding new pavement, resurfacing, recoating and sealing everything. 

When the project is done, it will allow for more small as well as large aircraft parking spaces on the ramp, Wright said. 

The project is funded by Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds and an Airport Improvement Program grant.  

Other projects 

The port’s 2026 operating budget is $10.1 million. Its non-operating budget is $14.4 million, its capital budget is $13.6 million and the port will collect $2.6 million in property taxes.

Although the port discovered a $1.14 million budget deficit after financial review earlier this year, Branine said that its bigger capital projects won’t be affected. Only small in-house projects of less than $50,000 or $100,000 might be paused, he said. 

The port is also working to launch its own permit portal to streamline the permitting process and keep all of the port’s information in one place, Lopez said. Like cities and other entities, certain plans need to be run by the port, including if fiber internet is going to run beneath a port-owned road or if tenants are making a change on a property.