(The Richmond Times-Dispatch posted the following article by Chip Jones on its website on May 3.)
RICHMOND, Va. — When one of your customers gets ready for a half-billion-dollar expansion, it’s bound to get your attention.
But Norfolk Southern Corp. is keeping its cards close to the vest after the April 19 announcement of a customer’s plan to build a huge freight terminal in Portsmouth.
The $450 million investment was announced by shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk. Its terminal company, APM, is developing a 575-acre tract on the Elizabeth River to build a container terminal.
Gov. Mark R. Warner said the project would provide a major economic boost to Hampton Roads, creating 210 jobs.
He called it the first major privately developed marine terminal in the nation. It will cover about 260 acres, have a 4,000-foot wharf and have up to 12 cranes designed to move shipping containers on and off vessels, the Virginian-Pilot reported.
All this would seem to bode well for Norfolk Southern, which picks up APM’s container traffic off a short-line railroad serving the area. APM reportedly paid Norfolk Southern $2.8 million for land adjacent to the site.
But Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman was cautious about predicting the facility’s effect on railroad revenue.
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“I can’t quantify anything,” he said. “We expect it to be significant.” Chapman said it was too early to predict whether the railroad will have to hire more employees.
This is part of what’s known as intermodal traffic – containers that are lifted off ships, put on rail cars and, sometimes, transferred to trucks.
Norfolk Southern, the only major railroad now based in Virginia, reported that its intermodal revenue increased by 13 percent to $328 million during the first quarter of this year.
That figure seems sure to rise once the Portsmouth project kicks into gear. Construction is scheduled to start in 2007.
The facility will make Hampton Roads the East Coast’s second-largest port, behind the Port of New York and New Jersey. Hampton Roads is competing with Charleston, S.C., for the No. 2 spot. The container terminal will be APM’s largest East Coast facility in terms of acreage.