PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Federal representatives stopped by the Port of Virginia Thursday to discuss the millions of dollars going to the widening and deepening of waterways that lead to the port.

Currently, the Norfolk Harbor and Channel is undergoing a $350 million widening and deepening project to increase the depth to at least 55 feet in some areas.

Due to the Infrastructure and Jobs Bill, the port will get $69 million for the project.

“It’s long overdue,” said U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia). “Our competitive advantage for these larger ships that are coming to the East Coast will having the deepest port on the East Coast. This will allow us to get to those 55-foot depths.”

Warner says the investment is great news.

“Great news for Hampton Roads, great news for Virginia, great news for the country because you get the pathway both deeper and wider, you’re going to have a ship come in while a Navy ship goes out. That again gives us a competitive advantage,” he said.

Port officials say having a wider and deeper port allows more large cargo ships to pass through at the same time. Now, the capability of only having one cargo ship pass through slows down other ships, which costs money.

Congressman Bobby Scott (D-Newport News) says the possible quicker efficiency of the port could help the inflation and supply chain issue.

“A lot of people are complaining about inflation without initiative to do something about it. It’s a worldwide problem. You can address it by dealing with supply chain. you get the goods to the store quicker, they won’t be able to jack up the prices. If we can make the ports more successful we can deal with the supply chain,” he said. “We have serious problems on the West Coast and the Port of Hampton Roads is working well. If we continue doing that, it will help deal with inflation.”

Congresswoman Elaine Luria (D-Norfolk) says the project is incredibly important to moving goods across the East Coast and says when there was a backlog of ships on the West Coast, that wasn’t happening here in Hampton Roads.

Luria says volume at the port increased 25% of the last year.

And the growth of the port will be felt in the community.

“As the port continues to grow, so do the number of businesses related in our region. As things come off ships, they can go to warehousing facilities, assembly, light manufacturing and distribution centers. You see the port growing here but you also see so many industries coming to the local area, especially in outlying areas like Suffolk where there’s space and land and a great workforce. I think the more the port grows, I think businesses will choose to make locations here for their businesses,” she said.

The representatives also visited other projects in the area which are receiving around $250 million for the City of Norfolk’s Coastal Storm Risk Management Project, which will help reduce and manage flooding through surge barriers, tidal gates, floodwalls, and more.

Michael Connor, who is the assistant secretary for Civil Works, says coastal resilience projects are one of the biggest growth areas for the Army Corps of Engineers.

“It’s a critical issue, which there will be more activity in the future,” he said.

Warner says Norfolk is finally getting the funding they deserve and hopefully will be able to help Virginia Beach and other coastal communities with similar programs and funding.

“It’s crazy to me it’s taken this long for people to acknowledge climate change. The Navy for years has been putting money into raising the docks. They see that sea level rise. The amount, how often parts of Norfolk flood, that’s the reality,” he said. “People in Hampton Roads realize climate change and sea level rise is here and now. It’s not in the future. Putting in additional flood walls, trying to have additional protection, this will affect all of Hampton Roads. This is one of the great places in Virginia and the country to live, but you have to have some protection against rising tides and this is finally becoming a reality in terms of funding.”

Along with the funding already provided, more help will be available from the Infrastrucutre and Jobs Bills.

Earlier this week, Warner announced that he’s released a new website that provides all the resources in one place for localities that need help.

“It’s the first time in 40 years Congress has stepped up in a major way and said ‘We’re going to put more money in roads, in ports, in rail, in airports, in broadband, in resilience.’ The challenge is for local communities is there’s 100 new programs in that bill. We’ve tried to put a one-stop-shop where a local government or entity that applies for funding can go and figure out what funding is out there,” he said.

Warner says it’s here to help smaller localities that don’t have the same staffing as larger ones.

“We’re talking about parts of the Middle Peninsula, Northern Neck, parts of the Southside, smaller communities and they only have one grant officer. I’ve seen some communities who have great opportunities to apply for a grant that fell through the cracks,” he said. “It gives them an easy place to go to look up what funds might be available coming out of the infrastructure bill.”