Port of Bellingham commissioners unanimously approved leasing a portion of the Bellingham Shipping Terminal on Tuesday evening, Feb. 4, to a construction material company that will import, export and stockpile gravel.
Granite Construction, one of the largest diversified construction and construction materials companies in the nation, will lease 5 acres of land at the log pond area of the shipping terminal, and 4,600 square feet of warehouse space at the shipping terminal for supplying washed crushed aggregate, made up of granite, limestone and other rock fragments, for civil construction projects. The lease will begin March 1.
Previously, the port had heard Granite Construction’s proposal in December 2024 for why it wanted to use the shipping terminal. James Essig, the resource development manager at Granite Construction, told commissioners the shipping terminal would be the closest dropping site for the materials to the quarry on Vancouver Island, B.C.
He added that Granite would construct a conveyor system, a hopper, a truck scale and a scale house. The conveyor system would be placed inside a warehouse at the terminal. The rock will not be crushed or washed at the shipping terminal. That’s being done at another location.
The gravel would then be stacked at the shipping terminal for local use. People would also be able to purchase gravel at the site to use in their home construction projects.
“This is going to give us the opportunity to provide these projects closer to town and minimize the amount of trucks coming in from the east and be able to serve the needs of the projects locally,” he said.
Granite already has a gravel site in Everson that port staff toured earlier in 2024, and two other sites in Whatcom County.
As for noise, “it’s a very low hum,” said Brian Gouran, director of environmental and planning services with the port, adding the material isn’t very dusty nor is it considered a hazardous material. “It’s probably a similar noise level to what we already see when the large boulders that we have that are dropped off are going onto a barge and out.”
Port staff predict the operation could bring in between $300,000 to $500,000 in revenue a year based on the rent, dockage, service and facilities fees, with an estimated 192 union job shifts per year. An additional 13 full-time employees will be employed by Granite at the shipping terminal plus transport personnel.
On Tuesday, port staff estimated around 30 trucks, depending on size, will be at the shipping terminal picking up gravel from the stockpile and moving it to construction projects across Whatcom County.
Community questions that had been sent to the port commission ahead of Tuesday’s vote asked about the type of truck traffic that would be coming out of the shipping terminal, which lies on a City of Bellingham-approved truck route, when there was a shipment of gravel.
“I think people are assuming once that barge comes in you’re going to have 30 semis lined up down there that are going to be pounding through town, and that’s not the case,” Commissioner Bobby Briscoe said. “You’re going to have some coming.”
Essig said there would be some semis but also local buyers with pick-up trucks and trailers.
According to the lease agreement, Granite will discharge at least six barges during its first year of the lease, growing to at least 12 barges by year three of the lease.
Port commissioners at the December meeting — with memories of the ABC Recycling debacle earlier in 2024 that ended in a terminated lease for the Canadian recycling company after it failed to follow the port’s environmental regulations — questioned Granite on environmental safeguards.
“Our last tenant ABC didn’t have a very robust experience with regulation or for stormwater monitoring in this state or this country,” Commissioner Michael Shepard said at the time.
Gouran said Granite has a history of getting permits through the state Department of Ecology.
Steve Hitzel, the environmental manager at Granite, said they have stormwater permits for 13 of their asphalt sites in Washington, as well as sand and gravel permits, land use permits and air permits.
The lease agreement also contains a series of steps Granite must complete if it becomes aware of the presence of hazardous substances on the property, that it must provide copies of environmental reports and comply with regulations concerning stormwater management.
Ahead of the vote, Briscoe said he liked the idea of having the granite stockpile easily accessible for local buyers.
“It’s nice that we’re removing some trucks from the highway and are using our marine water route,” he said. “I think it’s a good product that’s going to be great for the local people.”
Nobody spoke against the lease during public comment.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
