FEATURES – March 2009

Port Power

The Hampton Roads harbor is getting prepared for its role as one of the premier transportation facilities in the world.

By Kip Tabb

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The future is now. Those things that were only the images of science fiction, that were too fantastic orextraordinary to ever believe would or could exist, are now a part of a very real vision engineers and planners see for the Port of Hampton Roads.

Ships 1200–1300 feet in length now ply the ocean’s waters, coming to port stacked high with standardized shipping containers, each container coded for a specific destination. At the pier, huge cranes lift the containers from the ship to the dock, where they are scanned, loaded on a freight train and sent to their destination. If all goes according to plan, shipments put to port in Hampton Roads will be in Chicago in 24 hours.

Well protected, with waters deep and wide enough to accommodate even the largest ships, yet close to open waters, the transformation of the Port of Hampton Roads into a model 21st century transportation hub has been an ongoing process for more than 125 years.

A World Class Port

From the time of the first European explorers, Hampton Roads has been seen as a harbor with qualities rarely found anywhere else in the world, but it was not until 1881 that the port began its integration with the rest of the transportation network. When the Chesapeake and Ohio railways built coal piers at Newport News, the fusing of the water and land routes began.

It is a remarkable harbor. One of the largest all-weather, deep-water ports in the world—it is uniquely positioned by both geography and infrastructure to become, arguably, the busiest port on the eastern seaboard. “The Virginia Ports are developing as the major port on the eastern U.S. seaboard,” says Jeff Keever, deputy executive director for the Virginia Port Authority.

As incredible as that claim may sound, there is a growing sense among community leaders, engineers and planners that the Port of Hampton Roads is ready to become one of the premier transportation facilities in the world.

In order to grasp why Hampton Roads suddenly finds itself poised to become one of the busiest ports in the country, there has to be an understanding of transportation trends on the regional, national and international field.

Ships are getting larger. APM-Maersk, the largest shipping company in the world, currently plans to build eight super-freighters—ships 1200 to more than 1300 feet in length. There are currently three in operation, and plans call for the project to be completed in 2010. And Maersk is not the only company building ships of this size.

Used exclusively, at this time, for trade with Asian markets, no ship of this size currently calls on eastern seaboard ports.

There are a number of reasons for that.

To get from China to the East Coast of the United States, ships use the Panama Canal, and at this point in time, the Panama Canal cannot handle ships longer than 1000 feet in length and 110 feet across.

That is about to change. In October of 2006, voters in Panama approved a Canal expansion referendum. The $6 billion project is scheduled for completion in 2014. Faced with growing delays in getting to West Coast ports and longer and more expensive transit of goods to the East Coast, shippers are planning on using the new route.

There is only one port on the eastern seaboard of the United States that will be able to take fully loaded super-freighters: Hampton Roads.

As early as 1947, the federal government saw the potential of a small island just north of Portsmouth at the mouth of the Elizabeth River. Legislation was passed authorizing the disposal of dredge material on Craney Island, and after 10 years of study, the Army Corps of Engineers allowed the first dredge spoils to be deposited.

The decision to use Craney Island as a disposal sight for dredged material has had two profound effects on the direction of the Port of Hampton Roads.

Through the use of impoundments and dikes, the island has grown to its present-day 2500-acre size. Although the current economic downturn has placed a hold on further expansion, business leaders are confident that the hold is temporary and construction will begin again in 2010. “The plans are on hold for that right now,” says Joe Harris, spokesperson for the Virginia Port Authority. “But it’s not permanent. The pace has slowed, but the world economic forecasts still show the United States as the number one consumer nation in the world.”

Although not yet completed, the project is generating international interest. In July of 2007, APM Terminals opened the newest North American facility on almost 300 acres on the island. Using the latest technology in intermodal shipping (shipping industry term for the standardized shipping containers), the facility was designed for the future. “We can already handle the largest vessels,” says Edward McCarthy, supervising directory of APM Terminals.

The use of Craney Island as a disposal site has had a second, yet equally important, effect. “Dredging the channels (of Hampton Roads) is one of the least expensive dredge disposal sites in the United States,” notes Doug Martin, a COE project manager. That observation is confirmed by Mike Anderson, acting chief of the design section of the COE, who notes the cost of dredging of sand ranges from $4 to $10 per cubic yard in Hampton Roads. At the other end of the spectrum, the Port of New York pays up to $100 per cubic yard to dispose of dredge material.

Now maintained at a depth of 50 feet, engineers are hoping to increase the depth of the channels leading to the Norfolk International Terminal and Craney Island. “Currently the project has been constructed and is maintained to 50 feet,” Anderson writes in answer to an email inquiry. “The 55-foot project is a goal for the Port and will take at least 10 to 15 years to be realized.” The wider, deeper channel will be able to accommodate even the largest ships currently in use.

There are also other reasons why Hampton Roads is the only eastern U.S. port (Halifax is the only Canadian port that can handle ships of this size) that is capable of handling the new class of super-freighters. The beam—the height of these ships—is equivalent to a 16-story building. Bridges are not built that high off the water, and whether through foresight and planning or luck, tunnels span the major waterways in Hampton Roads. It is the only eastern seaboard port that does not have bridges crossing its main channel.

Planners working to improve the Port of Hampton Roads stress, however, that it is not only Craney Island that is being upgraded and improved. The port is administered by the Virginia Port Authority (VPA), an agency of the state, although the VPA receives no money from the state’s general fund, relying on earnings from its facilities to cover operating costs.

Currently the VPA owns three facilities in the Hampton Roads area—Norfolk International Terminal, Newport News Marine Terminal and Portsmouth Marine Terminal.

For the rest of Port Power, pickup our March 2009 issue wherever magazines are sold.

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