Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) - Ground is broken on the biggest project the Duluth Port Authority has taken on in more than six decades.

Construction on the Port of Duluth Intermodal Project is officially underway.

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"This is going to be our biggest project since Clure Public Terminal, which started the Port Authority, and that was back in 1959," said Port Authority Executive Director Vanta Coda.

The 28 acre site has sat relatively unused for more than twenty years.

Now it will acquire a "roll on, roll off" dock and twice the weight bearing capacity of any existing dock in the Twin Ports.

The facility will be able to specialize in "project cargo," or heavy lift equipment like parts for wind turbines, oil extraction or mining equipment.

"It's going to be geared really towards heavy lift and project cargo," said Coda. "2,000 pounds per square foot of dock."

Legislators say having a state–of–the–art dock will keep the Twin Ports on the map of national ports.

"By upgrading this port we really help with jobs throughout the region, and we want to be able to compete with those big ports in South Carolina, in Maryland and Virginia and other places like that," said Minnesota State Senator Amy Klobuchar.

The new facility is projected to increase the amount of international trade the ports can handle and that's an important part of being a viable link in the world's chain of trade.

"95 percent of the entire world who are our customers for our potential exports, they don't live in the United States," said United States Maritime Administrator Paul "Chip" Jaenichen. "We have to have access to them for us to continue to have economic growth."

"We're heading into a big export economy," said Senator Klobuchar. "If we want goods made in America we've got to get away to get them out of America to be sold to other places, where then we can create more jobs here."

Marking a new era in the Twin Ports' roll on the stage of international trade.

The $17 million project is expected to be completed as early as the fall of 2016.