Economic development, Harbor Assistance Program - Wisconsin Department of Transportation

In 1979, Wisconsin’s Legislature created the Harbor Assistance Program (HAP) to assist harbor communities along the Great Lakes and Mississippi River in maintaining and improving waterborne commerce. The Program provides grants of up to 80% of total project cost to public and privately-owned harbors in Wisconsin for facility improvement projects. Harbor projects typically include dock reconstruction, mooring structure replacement, dredging, and the construction of facilities to hold dredged material.

Harbor Assistance Program's role in economic development

Harbor improvements provide significant measurable benefits to businesses and municipalities that use Wisconsin waterways. Each project yields a monetary benefit that over the useful lifetime of the facility is greater than its cost. Completed projects save harbor users time and money in travel, and in the loading and unloading of diverse goods such as salt, gravel, limestone, coal, steel, manufactured goods, and even fully assembled ships.

Since 1995, HAP has made possible the completion of projects that will provide an estimated $250.3 million of transportation benefits to their users over the next 25 years. These benefits represent decreased production costs to the businesses that use the harbor facilities in Wisconsin. As a result, Wisconsin businesses are better able to compete in the world marketplace, and to hire more workers and generate more income in the state.

Case studies

One example of a project and associated benefits made possible by a 2010 Harbor Assistance Program grant is a new motor fuel loading facility for U.S. Oil Company, Inc. at its Fox Terminal in Green Bay. The project provides an alternative supply of motor fuels in northeastern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The company received a grant of $1,945,880 toward a total project cost of $2,432,350. The grant is expected to create 28 new jobs, preserve four jobs and to generate more than $25 million in benefits over the project life through more efficient materials handling and shipping costs. The terminal exported more than 210,000 tons of petrol products in 2011.

In 2011, WisDOT awarded a $1,630,950 HAP grant toward a $2,047,450 dredging project in Two Rivers. The project maintains navigable channel depth in the East Twin River that will enable continued use by the Two Rivers commercial fishing industry. The benefits of this project include preserving 94 jobs and generating more than $8.2 million in economic benefits.

For more information, including an application form, see WisDOT's Harbor Assistance Program web page.

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Apply for funds and get more information about the Harbor Assistance Program

Economic Impact of Wisconsin's Commercial Ports (1.3 MB)