THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 29, 1995 TAG: 9511290448
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
The Virginia Port Authority board of directors on Tuesday approved a 15-year plan for the port of Hampton Roads, calling for spending more than $300 million on expansion.
The 2010 Plan is designed to build up the port to handle the cargo expected to be shipped through Hampton Roads in the early years of the next century.
``To me, this is a milestone for the port,'' said Russell Kirk, the port authority chairman.
The port has grown dramatically in the past 10 years. Port officials estimate Hampton Roads terminals will handle more than 9 million tons of general cargo in 1995, 1 million more tons than last year and three times what they saw a decade ago.
``We've only begun to grow at 9 million tons,'' Kirk said. ``I can even foresee the day when we can overtake the port of New York.''
New York, the largest port on the East Coast, handles about twice the cargo that Hampton Roads does, but that margin has been dwindling and New York faces numerous difficulties in continuing to grow.
Hampton Roads, on the other hand, is better positioned than any other East Coast port to grow, given its natural deep water, ready access to the ocean and strong rail connections inland, said John D. Covaney, the port's senior managing director of marketing services.
An assessment of future cargo-handling needs that was part of the 2010 Plan projects that shipments through Hampton Roads will at least double in the next 15 years.
And that assessment may be conservative, Covaney said. ``We're already well ahead of their projections,'' he said.
Public and private port terminals in Hampton Roads have handled nearly 7.6 million tons of cargo in the first 10 months of 1995, a better than 15 percent increase over the 6.5 million tons recorded through October 1994.
Such double-digit growth is expected to continue through at least the first half of 1996, based on what shippers through the port are projecting, Covaney said.
The 2010 Plan, which cost the authority $467,000, was developed by the port consulting firm of Vickerman Zachary Miller in conjunction with other consulting firms.
To help pay for the port's expansion plan, the authority's board voted Tuesday to approve the issuance of up to $103 million of revenue bonds. Such a bond issue still must be approved by the governor and the Virginia General Assembly.
The plan calls for the port to about double the size of the Norfolk International Terminals facility and make improvements at its terminals in Portsmouth and Newport News.
The port also needs to improve cargo handling in its terminals, including improving rail access, expanding ship-to-rail handling of containers and speeding up truck access at the gates to the terminals.
Some of the projects recommended by the plan are already under way. For example, the study concluded that Norfolk International Terminals will need two additional containership berths by 2010. One of those berths is under construction and the port has plans to add up to three more.
A $1.8 million project expanding the yard at NIT, where containers are moved on and off of rail cars, is nearly complete as well. by CNB