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QUINCY, ILL. -- A decade long port project in Quincy suffered a major setback.

The Mid-America Intermodal Authority Port District project was denied a federal TIGER grant.

The grant would have brought in $15 million for the project.

About $12 million has already been invested in infrastructure surrounding the area where the port is planned.

The port would have helped Quincy businesses transport products in larger volumes, helping bring Quincy into the global market.

"When your businesses are as significant as they are here in Quincy, and you've got so many agricultural businesses that are saying 'we've got get over seas, we've got to get there faster," Great River Economic Development Foundation president Jim Mentesti said. "We've got to be able to get more product there quicker, we've got to get more product back here soon' you've got to listen to that."

GREDF has been working on the project on behalf of the port district.

The port project is stalled without that federal funding after nearly a decade of work.

"In economic development it doesn't always go your way the first or second time. We will wait and see what the board tells us to do and then hopefully we can be winners the next time," Mentesti said.

GREDF will meet with the port district board to see where they will go from here. Mentesti suspects that they will move forward by trying to find alternative funding for the project.