Cargo port move scuttled.

Puerto Rico scuttled a plan to relocate the island's cargo port from San Juan to a city on the south coast after port management and labor protested the move, reports AP (Oct. 3, 2007). Port Authority Exec. Dir. Fernando Bonilla said breakbulk cargo operations will remain in the capital for the next 8 years while authorities work out an agreement over a possible new location. Puerto Rico opened bidding in 2004 on the US$600 million project to build a new cargo port in the southern city of Ponce that would be among the biggest in the Americas. The proposed facility was initially due to be operational in 2006. But the proposed move met opposition from San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini, as well as managers and workers at the port near the capital's old colonial district. Bonilla said the Odyssea Stevedoring and Trans-Caribbean Maritime companies, which load and unload breakbulk cargo at the San Juan port, have approved a new plan to move operations to a nearby pier by 2009, as construction work to upgrade the San Juan waterfront by 2015 gets under way.