The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved an application for a federal grant that could provide more than $21 million for rebuilding a dock wall and replacing two cranes at Port Birmingham.

The grant is through the U.S. Maritime Administration’s Port Infrastructure Development Program. According to the administration’s website, the program funds projects that “improve the safety, efficiency or reliability of the movement of goods into, out of, around, or within a port.”

The resolution passed Tuesday also approves an agreement with Watco Alabama Port Services, the owner and operator of the Port Birmingham Terminal, in which the company will cover the 20% required grant match on behalf of the city.

Port Birmingham rests off the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River about 22 miles west of downtown Birmingham. According to Watco’s website, Port Birmingham is the only rail-served port in Central Alabama and has the only heavy-lift crane in the northern half of Alabama. The port spans 184 acres and serves as a connection to the Port of Mobile.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 provided more than $2 billion for the PIDP grant program to be allocated between 2022 and 2026. According to the Maritime Administration, $450 million of that will be available in 2024.

A member of the Laborer’s International Union of North America Local 559 spoke to the council in the public hearing section of the meeting Tuesday. He praised the grant application and urged city officials to make use of apprenticeship programs with the port project and other infrastructure programs.

“We want to make sure that the city is aware that we’re here, we’re ready to partner with you, and we have men and women ready to work,” he said of the union.

In other business, the council:

• Placed a moratorium on automated car wash uses and structures. The measure passed unanimously.
• Approved a $25,000 agreement for Central Alabama Redevelopment Alliance to manage public input sessions with the community and community leaders through the Woodlawn Community Council and business owners in the Woodlawn Business Association.
• Approved an agreement allowing the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus police to install two automated license plate readers along the public rights of way that abut the UAB campus, in the vicinity of University Boulevard. The aim is for campus police to get alerts to identify wanted or unpermitted vehicles.
• Heard a public comment from Elizabeth Shahid, a Birmingham resident and Palestinian Christian American, urging the council to join the 70 other American cities that have passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.