“For decades, jobs at the Port of Wilmington have been a gateway into the middle class for thousands of workers and their families—the kind of jobs our state and country were built on,” Delaware Governor John Carney said during the official announcement. “This investment to expand the Port will position Delaware to compete for container cargo and larger ships. It will bring new, good-paying union jobs to Wilmington. I am pleased to see strong bipartisan support for this important and necessary next step in making the planned Edgemoor expansion a reality.”
Expected to take three years to complete, the new state-of-the-art port will keep Delaware’s maritime industry strong and improve the state’s competitiveness by quadrupling the port’s capacity for container cargo. This will allow new and larger ships to be serviced.
Once operational around 2027, Port Delaware, consisting of both the existing and new terminals, is expected to generate approximately 11,480 jobs and $76.2 million in tax revenues for the state, making it one of Delaware’s largest employment centers.
The existing Port of Wilmington is a significant source of high-paying jobs to support Delaware families. Many of its longshoremen earn annual incomes of more than $100,000, with a recent national report estimating the average annual salary of a maritime worker at $98,000.
“This announcement is a major step forward in our efforts to make the City of Wilmington a major engine of Delaware’s economy and a source of strong union jobs once again,” Delaware Senator Jack Walsh, joint capital improvement (bond) committee co-chair, said. “This investment in our future fulfills that promise and will help thousands of Delaware workers support their families with good-paying union jobs. My colleagues and I on the Bond Committee are committed to working with Enstructure and our next governor to see this project through to completion for future generations of Delaware workers.”
Construction of the new port facility will be done in three phases, with the first to be completed over an estimated 32-month period. The first phase will largely be focused on waterside construction, which will entail building a seawall, high deck and associated dredging. The other two phases will be constructed by Enstructure when business justifies the additional capacity.
The current Port of Wilmington, with 800,000 square feet of dock side cold storage in six warehouses, is the No. 1 U.S. gateway for imports of fresh fruit and the leading port of entry for Chilean winter fruit.
From December to April, the port takes on Chilean table grapes, apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, apples, pears, cherries, berries and many other fruits. All fruit is stored in its six refrigerated, state-of-the-art cold storage warehouses until its distribution to consumers.
The Port also handles Peruvian grapes and kiwifruit from New Zealand, Moroccan clementines and Argentine apples and pears.
