SPANISH FORT, Ala. — The Alabama State Port Authority sits poised to reap untold benefits from more than 10 years of infrastructure investments, and local business leaders can play a pivotal role in the execution of those long-range plans.

That message, delivered Tuesday by authority director Jimmy Lyons to an intimate group gathered at the Original Oyster House on the Causeway, came with one caveat, however.

Regional unity fueled by a mutual appreciation of both Mobile Bay and the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta gives Eastern Shore business owners as much a stake in the port’s success as any counterpart across the bay, he said.

“Let’s park our parochial agendas at the door and decide what’s going to be good for this region,” said Lyons, also chairman of the Coastal Recovery Commission’s infrastructure committee. The commission was created by gubernatorial decree in October to draft a blueprint for moving the area forward  after last year’s Gulf Coast oil spill.

Lyons’ comments, the latest installment of the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce’s Business Academy Business Brief series, were intended to offer a glimpse into the integral role shipping plays in the local and state economy.

It’s no surprise, then, that his remarks sparked questions regarding the port’s ability to capture increased capacity from the pending widening of the Panama Canal as well as short- and long-term goals for expanding shipping channels and other projects.

The Port of Mobile is the ninth largest in the nation based on total volume. Lyons said some 580 people are employed directly through the authority and its ancillary operations, while another 2,000 area residents depend on the port for their livelihoods.

Since 2005, more than $500 million has been pumped into overhauling port operations, including an $80 million initial investment from state coffers. While the refurbishment’s start predates the 2006 announcement of the widening project — expected to double the 50-mile canal’s capacity over the next two decades — economic leaders are confident the Port of Mobile sits poised to capture at least a portion of traffic redirected from Pacific coast ports.

And while he doesn’t envision West Coast ports bowing out of competition for that traffic, Lyons said he sees no harm in being prepared for increased traffic because Gulf Coast ports could easily provide more cost-effective operations. The $5.25 billion can expansion is slated for completion in 2014.

To date, the following additional developments have been completed by the authority:

r The $110 million, state-of-the-art Pinto Terminal, that supplies the new ThyssenKrupp steel facility with its raw material from Brazil. All parties have acknowledged the terminal’s construction weighed heaviest on the German steelmaker’s decision to locate in Alabama.

r $110 million investment at the McDuffie Coal Terminal that helped Alabama coal producers compete in the global economy.

r International Shipholding Inc.’s $28 million rail ferry terminal that provides a secure, efficient and cost competitive link to markets in Mexico. The service can shave upwards of 20 days off the more traditional rail movements westward and across the land border.

r The $33 million 1,175-foot turning basin that will allow larger vessels to access the Port of Mobile and provide shippers with efficiencies in economies of scale to export Alabama’s raw materials and manufactured goods to the world.

r A $112 million intermodal rail facility is also under construction in McCalla to capitalize on the port’s five Class I railroads. Under a deal with Norfolk Southern, containers will move into the proposed McCalla facility on an existing Norfolk Southern rail line that originates at the state’s port instead of along Interstate-65 via truck.

It’s precisely this level of infrastructure the port needed to increase its profile and become more competitive, he said, and the diversification these changes have made possible mean the area no longer has to pin its hopes to any one industrial development project.

“We lost EADS, and that was a very, very bitter pill, but it was the unity of this area that brought them here in the first place,” Lyons said.

In February, the U.S. Air Force selected Chicago-based Boeing Co.’s bid to replace its aging fleet of KC-135 aerial refueling tankers over EADS, which had planned to build a $600 million assembly plant at Brookley Aeroplex.

And as far as anticipated increased traffic from not only the Panama Canal but also Colombia and South Korea, Lyons said the most immediate consideration is the creation of something akin to a 5-mile passing lane just south of Little Sand Island, but even that would be “at least five years out.”

“We’ve got the depth we need, but we are a little concerned about our width,” said Lyons, admitting he had no idea when he assumed the director’s title that economic development would become the “single most important part of my job.”

And yet, ThyssenKrupp is ramping up production of its steel plant in nearby Calvert and already spawning “spinoff projects” as far north as Thomasville, so Lyons said he knows the port is serving its purpose.