Transportation and Trade | hot topic
21 capitol ideas
» JULY / AUG 2011
The widened canal will allow a new generation of supersized ships from Asia carrying nearly three times as many shipping containers to pass through, bypassing West Coast ports and instead docking at ports along the East and Gulf coasts to drop off their goods. From there, they will be put on trucks and trains travelling the nation’s highways and railways. Nearly every ocean and gulf port in the Eastern and Southeastern U.S. have projects in the works to prepare for the expected growth in international trade the expanded canal could bring. The costs of the projects total nearly $20 billion, according to recent reports, including one produced last year by the Southern Legislative Conference of The Council of State Governments. Ports need deeper channels to accommodate the bigger Asian ships. Port authorities are working with public and private partners to build new container terminals with larger cranes and state governments and railroad companies are funding improvements to highway and rail connections. Georgia, for example, is planning a new $140 million connector highway that will link the Port of Savannah more directly with Interstate 95. The state will fund the project, in part, by selling $91 million in state general obligation bonds authorized by the state legislature last year. State gas tax revenues will be used to retire the bond debt. The Association of American Railroads reported in 2007 that $135 billion is needed over the next 28 years to allow the nation’s railroads to keep pace with economic growth and the demand forecast. While the railroads themselves could fund $96 billion of that amount, public-private partnerships with the states, federal investment tax credits or other means would have to cover the balance of $39 billion. CSX Corp., the second-largest U.S. railroad, recently announced it would invest $160 million to improve its ability to move freight from the Port of Virginia at Hampton Roads to the Midwest. That will complete the $860 million National Gateway initiative, a series of projects in six states and the District of Columbia to speed the flow of goods between eastern and western rail networks. Last fall, Norfolk Southern railroad opened its Heartland Corridor between Hampton Roads and Chicago. Both the CSX and Norfolk Southern initiatives involved raising tunnel clearances on their rail lines to allow trains to transport double-stacked containers, so they can deliver more freight with fewer trains, increasing efficiency and reducing rail line and highway congestion.
PREPARING FOR EXPANDED CANAL NEW ORLEANS, LA.—A tow boat moves up the Mississippi River at the Port of New Orleans. Port officials there and elsewhere in the South expect expanded trade due to the expansion of the Panama Canal. © AP Photo/Bill Haber