(The following article by Peter Dujardin was posted on the Hampton Roads Daily Press website on July 28.)
SUFFOLK, Va. — In the next decade or so, freight trains could snake alongside cars on what are now grassy median strips on Interstate 664 and Route 164.
Under a new initiative being developed by the Virginia Port Authority, a new train corridor there would provide service not only the new Maersk Sealand terminal set to be built in Portsmouth in the next couple of years but also a proposed state-owned terminal on Craney Island that could be built within 12 years just north of the Maersk terminal. There’s one small problem with the train line that heads west from the vicinity of the new Maersk site now: Because of multiple street-level grade crossings on the route, trains can move only about 10 miles an hour through that stretch.
But on the newly proposed Western Freeway Corridor, which would travel from the terminal west along Route 164 and then turn south on Interstate 664, trains could travel 30 to 35 mph or so, said Kevin Page, manager of rail development programs for the Virginia Department of Rail and Transportation.
That means faster delivery times for cargo going in and out of the terminals, port officials say. It also means improved safety, as it reduced the chances for accidents with cars at the grade crossings.
The proposed corridor, if it comes to pass, stands to be the most visible sign of a new effort by the Virginia Port Authority to reduce travel time to Chicago, Detroit and other Midwestern locations from Hampton Roads terminals.
The Virginia Port Authority, with support from government officials in West Virginia and Ohio, is working on what’s dubbed the Heartland Corridor project. That’s a plan designed to reduce the mileage from Hampton Roads to Chicago 18 percent, from 1,264 miles to 1,031 miles, said Michael T. Crist of the Moffatt & Nichol engineering firm at a Virginia Port Authority meeting on Tuesday. That translates, Crist said, into a reduction of 1.5 days in travel time.
The plan, if it happens, would dramatically alter the typical train route to Chicago and could increase shipments there.
Now the trains leave Hampton Roads, and head north about halfway through Virginia, ending up in Harrisburg, Pa., before turning west and going through Cleveland. But under the new route, trains would go west through Roanoke, then head north through Columbus, Ohio, before getting to Chicago.
Aside from the cost of building out the Western Freeway Corridor, the $266 million total project price tag includes modifying 28 tunnels along the trip to provide 20 feet, 3 inches for clearance to allow double stacking of trains on the new route. It also includes new cargo terminals in Roanoke and Columbus.
The Virginia Port Authority, Crist said, hopes to win a piece of the $6 billion that Congress is considering spending on regional transportation needs in both House and Senate versions of bills being discussed. Crist said local lawmakers, including Jo Ann Davis, R-Gloucester, and Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, were working to use some of that $6 billion for the project.