SOUTH CAROLINA PORTS South Carolina ports currently don’t offer an on-dock or near-dock rail option at their ocean terminals, says Laura Clifton, spokesperson with South Carolina Ports Authority. That will change when the Navy Base Intermodal Facility (NBIF) opens in June 2025. It will have a lift capacity of one million and the ability to handle more than 14,000-foot trains. “This will be a busy facility once it gets moving, and we’ll be able to serve customers more efficiently,” Clifton adds. The NBIF also will have 78,000 linear feet of railroad track, as well as six rail-mounted gantry cranes to move containers on and off CSX and Norfolk Southern trains. These two lines will serve the NBIF, creating a direct connection between port terminals in Charleston and inland ports in Greer and Dillon, as well as to markets in the Southeast and Midwest. A dedicated drayage road, one mile long, will connect the NBIF to the Leatherman Terminal, providing a way to move cargo more quickly from the dock to the rail and on to inland markets. In addition, a future barge will transport containers between the Leatherman and Wando Welch terminals. The overall project budget is about $550 million. Another project is the $5 million, five- year expansion at Inland Port Greer. In 2022, 8,000 additional feet of track were added. The expansion of the west yard was completed in spring 2024, and the east yard expansion is slated to be complete by fall 2024, Clifton says. The new terminal operations and maintenance building will be completed in spring and summer of next year. “We’ve seen a lot of success with our inland ports,” Clifton says. Inland Port Greer moved 175,873 containers on and off trains in 2023, a 26% jump from the previous year. Once it’s complete, the expansion will provide enough additional capacity to meet projected cargo demands through 2040. “Rail helps us get things off the dock and inland to our inland markets much more efficiently,” Clifton adds. n
Growth at South Carolina’s two rail-served inland ports has driven the percentage of containers moved inland by rail back up to pre-pandemic levels, with 23% of total marine containers traveling by rail during calendar year 2023.
Port Optimizer technology. The grant will provide funding to develop a new California Ports mobile application. This will make it easier for California ports to send and receive data on issues such as cargo status, Caris says. Another enhancement will be the addition of an online gateway for collecting the carbon impact of port operations. Users will be able to access a near-real-time Green Asset Score based on rail, trucking, vessel, and on-port equipment particulate and greenhouse gas emissions. Based on this score, Port Optimizer users can select routes that balance cargo speed and emissions impacts. PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY One of many projects underway by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is the Southbound Connector. This will add a second egress point to the ExpressRail Elizabeth terminal. Currently, trains can only exit the facility’s terminal to the north. “Right now, trains go north to go back south. We want to streamline that,” says Nicol Polidoro, manager, multi- modal logistics. This investment will increase operational efficiency and is expected
to streamline train movements and reduce congestion during peak hours. ExpressRail connects every major container terminal in the complex with Norfolk Southern and CSX The Southbound Connector project received $6.85 million in grant funding from the New Jersey Department of Transportation for planning and construction. It’s also funded in part by Maher Terminals and APM Terminals, which together operate the facility through their Millennium Marine Rail joint venture. Top 10 U.S. Ports by Volume (2023) 1. Port of Los Angeles, California 2. Port of New York/New Jersey 3. Port of Long Beach, California 4. Port of Savannah, Georgia 5. Port of Houston, Texas 6. Port of Oakland, California 7. Port of Virginia 8. Port of Charleston, So. Carolina 9. Port of Seattle, Washington 10. Port of Miami, Florida
October 2024 • Inbound Logistics 31
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