The Port of Astoria has ramped up promotional efforts for the rehabilitation project needed at Pier 2 in the hopes of landing funding.

Pier 2, a critical piece of infrastructure for the Port and the region’s economy, has been slowly deteriorating into the Columbia River. Home to seafood processors Da Yang Seafood and Bornstein Seafoods, the west side of the pier struggles with rotting decks, crumbling asphalt and a failing seawall.

Over the years, the Port has improvised makeshift fixes, but the agency has fallen short of securing the money to help cover the substantial cost — now estimated at $15 million — needed to perform full rehabilitation.

“Across all planning, across all properties, everything is really tied — the tentacles are really into the seafood and processing industries,” Matt McGrath, the Port’s deputy director, said at a Port Commission meeting this month. “When you start looking at Pier 2 west, for example, it’s really difficult for the Port to overstate its importance.”

McGrath also outlined the agency’s needs for Pier 2 rehabilitation at a Columbia-Pacific Economic Development District meeting this month.

The Port has distributed pamphlets that summarize the project and emphasize the importance the pier has to the region. McGrath said the agency is looking to build a public relations campaign for the project in order to reach state and federal legislators.

“It’s very easy to show how justifiable the project is,” McGrath told The Astorian. “The biggest thing is just to get the word out and to make sure that we have really good information, really good solutions as far as engineering and making people understand that the Port is not doing this on its own.”

Last year, the Port Commission approved an exception from competitive bidding and the use of the construction management-general contractor alternative form of contracting. The approach is intended to streamline and coordinate project design and planning.

The option was also pursued, McGrath said, to “ensure that we’re shepherded through this process properly.”

The Port is in the process of evaluating contractors for the job and a decision could come within the next month.

The agency has pursued a number of grants to help finance a fix to no avail. Several years ago, the Port received a $1.5 million state infrastructure grant for the pier, but eventually returned it after the agency was unable to provide a local match of $660,000.

The Port has rethought its approach and is refocusing its efforts to land funding. But the asking price has significantly gone up as a catastrophic failure of the pier becomes possible.

McGrath estimates that preconstruction — design, permitting and mitigation — will cost around $2.5 million.

“That’s a big ask,” he said.

McGrath identified several state and federal grants that the Port is pursuing, including the next round of funding from Connect Oregon, the state’s funding program for nonhighway transportation projects.

In order to land the competitive Connect Oregon funding, the Port will need to provide proper justification of the importance of the project. The Port estimates that the annual recurring output from seafood processing operations on the pier is over $100 million for Clatsop County. Over a 10-year period, the pamphlet states, over 2,800 jobs will be retained or created thanks to Pier 2.

The seafood processors on Pier 2 have also indicated that they would be interested in expanding if the rehabilitation project were to come to fruition, McGrath said.

“It’s easy when you get the data out there,” McGrath said. “ … At some point it just becomes a no-brainer — it’s like, this is very, very easy to justify.”

McGrath credited Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, for helping the Port pitch the project.

At a Port Commission meeting earlier this month, Astoria City Councilor Tom Brownson said he pitched the Port’s needs to U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley at an elected officials meeting before the Oregon Democrat’s town hall at Clatsop Community College.

“The one thing that I think stands out more than anything for the city of Astoria … right now, I think what’s happening with the Port — all your needs, all the things you’ve done to bring yourself to the point you’re at, all the decision you’ve made, the plans you have going forward and what not, it’s really a pivotal time,” Brownson told Port Commissioners. “And of course, you need money to do all this stuff.”

At a media availability prior to his town hall, Merkley, in response to a question about local funding requests, told The Astorian, “I anticipate that some of the Port facilities are already being noted as things that are really (in need) … I’m just hearing a lot about the waterfront.”