The governing board of the Washington state Port of Vancouver on Tuesday approved a $56.2 million budget for 2010, shaving about $3 million of the previous years budget of $59.6 million.
Port officials cited the need to be conservative with the budget despite predictions of a global economic turnaround as early as next year by some experts. The Vancouver port, which deals almost exclusively with bulk and break-bulk commodities such as minerals, grains and automobiles, has been hit particularly hard by the global cargo slump.
While the 2010 budget is a sharp decline from the port's peak budget of $127.4 million in 2008, port officials said this merely reflected a drawing down of capital projects over the past several years.
The new budget still allocated about $23 million to continue work on the Terminal 5 rail loop, part of the $137 million West Vancouver Freight Access project designed to relieve freight train congestion through the port and the city.
Port officials cited the need to be conservative with the budget despite predictions of a global economic turnaround as early as next year by some experts. The Vancouver port, which deals almost exclusively with bulk and break-bulk commodities such as minerals, grains and automobiles, has been hit particularly hard by the global cargo slump.
While the 2010 budget is a sharp decline from the port's peak budget of $127.4 million in 2008, port officials said this merely reflected a drawing down of capital projects over the past several years.
The new budget still allocated about $23 million to continue work on the Terminal 5 rail loop, part of the $137 million West Vancouver Freight Access project designed to relieve freight train congestion through the port and the city.