The Port of Coos Bay has received an US$11m award to advance rail infrastructure for the Pacific Coast Intermodal Port project (PCIP) on the Oregon coast.

The award funds the next stage of rail works tied to the PCIP programme, a long-running effort to convert the port into a container terminal serving transpacific cargo flows. Rail capacity sits at the centre of the scheme: the port's viability as an intermodal gateway depends on upgrading the rail connection linking Coos Bay to the national network, the principal route by which containers would move inland to and from the terminal.

The Port of Coos Bay, which operates the 134-mile Coos Bay Rail Line connecting the harbour to the Union Pacific network in Eugene, has spent more than a decade restoring and rehabilitating that corridor after acquiring it in 2009. The line is the freight spine for the region's existing cargo traffic and the designated artery for the planned intermodal terminal.

The PCIP concept calls for a deep-water container facility on Coos Bay with capacity to relieve congestion at the congested US West Coast gateways of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma. Proponents position the site — one of the deepest natural harbours on the US West Coast — as an alternative port of call for transpacific services.

The US$11m award adds to the funding the port has assembled for the multi-billion-dollar programme, which remains in the development and permitting phase. Port officials have previously outlined a phased construction timetable, with rail works among the early packages needed before terminal construction can proceed.

For shippers and western rail operators, the practical outcome of this tranche of money is narrower: it keeps the rail upgrade — the physical prerequisite for any intermodal service from Coos Bay — on schedule while the port continues to seek the larger capital stack required for the terminal itself. Further award announcements and permitting milestones are expected as the project moves toward its construction window.