Port of Port Angeles buys electric cargo equipment
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 10, 2026
PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles commissioners approved the purchase of two pieces of electric cargo handling equipment that will improve the port’s ability to operate more efficiently and lower its carbon footprint.
A TeleStacker Conveyor, priced at $1.3 million, is 90 percent funded through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Ports grant program, with an additional 5 percent covered by the state Department of Transportation’s port electrification program. The port’s share is $65,000, or 5 percent of the total.
“We are coming in at budget,” said Katharine Frazier, the port’s grants and government affairs manager.
In addition to the TeleStacker, the $9,457,361 EPA Clean Ports grant has covered the purchase of a 5-ton electric forklift, a 10-ton electric forklift and a 45-ton reach stacker.
The second item, an electric conveyor system priced at $3,059,494, is funded through a Maritime Administration’s Port Infrastructure Development Program grant. That purchase came in about $1 million over the original $2 million grant allocation.
Frazier said the higher cost was due to widening the conveyor and adding covers to keep cargo from blowing away — customizations the port requested. But the port remained under its overall grant budget due to $1.5 million in savings on another equipment purchase.
The TeleStacker and conveyor work together as a single cargo handling system.
The conveyor feeds wood chips from a stockpile and moves them to a dock, where the TeleStacker deposits them directly into a barge.
Senior port Operations Manager Scott Hough said the new system will eliminate truck traffic at the site, thus cutting emissions as well as the dust that workers inhale.
“Safety and health are greatly improved with this system,” he said.
It will move twice the volume at twice the speed and reach farther and angle higher than the equipment currently in use; it can load 5,000 tons of cargo — two barges — in eight to 10 hours. The port currently takes 16 hours to load the same amount, Hough said.
Together, the purchases total $4,359,494. The port’s share across both items is roughly $677,000, or about 14 percent of the combined cost.
The equipment is custom designed for the port and is expected to take six to eight months to manufacture and deliver.
In other news, capital project manager Zach Holsted update commissioners on the log yard stormwater improvement project.
Holsted said concrete debris from the site is being crushed and repurposed as subgrade material, and crews have started laying geogrid — material placed under the asphalt to help distribute the weight of heavy equipment loads.
The project, budgeted at about $9.9 million and contracted to Interwest Construction, is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
Port COO Chris Hartman confirmed that both an archaeologist and a tribal monitor were on site during excavation.
The log yard remains operational on the western portion of the site during construction.
Vacant seat
Commissioners will hold a special meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday to review applicants for the District 2 commissioner position, which became vacant when Steve Burke resigned on May 1. Commissioners will review applications in executive session and make a decision of who will move on to an interview during open session.
They will interview applicants in a special public meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Appointment and swearing in of the District 2 commissioner is scheduled to occur during the commissioners’ regular meeting at 9 a.m. June 23.
All meetings will be held at the port’s offices, 338 W. First St., Port Angeles.
To be eligible for the position, a candidate must be a resident and registered voter of Port District 2. Each applicant must complete an application package found at https://portofpa.com. All applications and resumes must be submitted via email to the clerk to the board, Jenna Riley, at jennar@portofpa.com, no later than 5 p.m. on Friday.
In the first call for applicants, three individuals submitted applications: Marc Abshire, Kelly Kidwell and Tom Swanson.
________
Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
