Inland Port Carrier spotlight
Kirby Corp.
PORT SECURITY CONCEPTS ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY REVIVING MARINE HIGHWAYS
Inland Port
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INLAND PORT MAGAZINE
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Reviving the Marine Highway
Managing Editor
By Steve Szkotak
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Studying Major Seaports Helps Inland Ports Improve Security
By Han Le, Patrick Bellamy, and Steven Pei, University of Houston
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PORT SECURITY CONCEPTS ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY REVIVING MARINE HIGHWAYS
Inland Port
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Reviving the Marine Highway I
ncreased concerns about fuel prices and global warming in recent years have revived interest in marine highways from the Erie Canal to the Chesapeake Bay to the coastal waters off Oregon, Massachusetts and Texas. Proponents envision further expansion of the country’s 25,000 miles of navigational waterways by making greater use of the coasts and inland routes, such as the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. A significant expansion of the marine highway system faces several obstacles: • Many locks haven’t been updated in decades to accommodate increased freight traffic. Replacing the nation’s lock system would cost an estimated $125 billion. • A harbor maintenance tax that can add $100 or more on an international cargo container shipped domestically by water. The tax is not collected on cargo moved by trucks or rail, or on U.S. exports. • The scarcity of U.S. ships to serve domestic ports along short-sea routes. Some blame a federal law that limits shipping between domestic ports to U.S.-built vessels whose crews are at least 75 percent American, a restriction intended to protect U.S. shipbuilders but which critics say has contributed to the industry’s decline by stifling innovation. Despite these infrastructure and regulatory constraints, entrepreneurs are charting a way forward, one tugboat trip at a time.
An idea that dates to Lewis and Clark’s trek west is experiencing a rebirth thanks to the truck traffic that increasingly chokes highways: Shift more of the nation’s freight burden to boats that can traverse rivers, lakes, canals and coastal waters. By Steve Szkotak
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Inland Port
Increased intermodal shipping would decrease road congestion, saving the US billions each year.
Ed Whitmore spent 11 years on Wall Street before returning to his native Virginia six years ago for the life of a tugboat operator. He took a “broken down, beat-up company” with one belching tug and grew Norfolk Tug Co. into a fleet of 10. With the help of a $2.3 million federal grant, Norfolk Tug has made once-a-week runs up the James River since December 2008, delivering cargo from oceangoing vessels to the Port of Richmond. Each container loaded on a barge removes one truck from the 90-mile stretch along Interstate 64. Whitmore estimates his business removes roughly 4,000 trucks from I-64 each year. The “64 Express” already has captured a tiny piece of packaging maker MeadWestvaco Corp.’s huge shipping portfolio. Large rolls of paper from its Covington mill in far western Virginia are trucked to the Port of Richmond and Whitmore’s barges for export from the coast. Intermodal Shipping is Cost-Effective Before the development of a national
rail system and later an interstate highway system, nearly all the country’s goods were shipped on boats. Today, 94 percent of all domestic freight moves on rail or by truck. But not without some cost. Congestion on roads and rails costs the U.S. economy as much as $200 billion annually and 44 billion person hours, according to the Transportation Department. One 15-barge tow removes 1,050 tractortrailers from the highways. And with just a gallon of diesel, a barge can move one ton of cargo 576 miles. A rail car using the same amount of fuel moves that ton of cargo 413 miles, while a truck gets only 155 miles. Short-sea shipping advocates also point to a strong safety and environmental record. In 2005 and 2006, spill rates were 6 gallons per 1 million ton-miles for trucks, 3.86 gallons for rail, and 3.6 gallons for barges, according to a Texas Transportation Institute study conducted for federal transportation officials. When accidents do occur on water, the impact tends to be large. In July, a tug on the Mississippi near New Orleans veered Inland Port
into the path of a tanker, causing a rupture that spilled 283,000 gallons of oil and shut the waterway for days. Looking Toward 2010 The recent economic stimulus package passed by Congress included $27 billion for road-building projects and $12 billion for rail and other infrastructure improvements-but not a nickel was specifically directed at short-sea shipping. Proponents of funding for marine highways, including the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., say their next best opportunity will be the debate on the fiscal 2010 federal budget. For the time being, Chris Osen, vice president of supply management for MeadWestvaco, said his company’s commitment to short-sea shipping is based on pragmatism, with an undercurrent of idealism. “Everything we do has to be the most cost advantageous to us,” he said. The company will select a “green route, if all things are equal.” IP 3
Studying Major Seaports Helps Inland Ports Improve Security
The Houston Ship Channel is a major seaport with unique and complex vulnerability issues. Analyzing how such a large coastal port deals with security problems can produce general models of integrated safety solutions that are directly applicable to America’s smaller inland ports. By Han Le, Patrick Bellamy, and Steven Pei, University of Houston
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eaport security has become a critical element of supply chain economics and a vital concern for world shipping. Since 2002, the International Maritime Organization has recommended comprehensive safety measures within the framework of its International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code. In the United States, port security is regulated by Homeland Security directives. The market for related technology and services has grown significantly in recent years with the elaboration of several attractive options for marine facilities. Every port, large and small, has different security features and challenges, and the vulnerability issue usually requires consideration of large-scale, multitiered complex systems. In this context, seaport case studies offer cross-fertilizing insights and alternatives that can be generalized. The Houston Ship Channel (HSC), one of the busiest waterways in the United States, provides a unique example. It is the second largest American port (2005) and the world’s tenth largest in cargo volume (2004). Its important economic role has long been recognized. Strategically more critical, however, is that it also represents globally one of the largest petrochemical complexes, with 40% of US refinery capacity located along its waterways. Since 2002, its security issues have been the object of extensive scrutiny and were also featured in popular articles with vivid descriptions of hypothetical disaster scenarios. The HSC has periodically been widened and deepened to accommodate larger ships. It is 530 feet wide, 45 feet deep, and 50 miles long. It extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the fourth largest city of the United States.
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The safeguarding of the HSC is a shared responsibility of federal, state, and local authorities, including 151 privately owned facility operators. These various entities together form a de facto macroscopic security system that represents an interesting case of complex multilayered systems consisting of a throughput screening and access control system, a command, control, communication, and information (C3I) system for total
support from lower layers. A key front end is the proposed surveillance network. Undergirding this layer and the C3I system is a back end that includes a planned highcapacity backbone optical network that will enable a net-centric information integration system. The data sharing promotes unified situational awareness for effective coordination among the different administrative and
in the middle of urban and industrial zones. Attacks could conceivably occur using vehicles in public access locations, a problem common in most inland port areas. In addition, current technologies have significant limitations, since most are designed to prevent stealth intrusions but not those based on deception, that is, using camouflage or false representation. In summary, the HSC poses an interest-
Surveillance, including everything from sonar to infrared video cameras, is crucial for inland port security forces.
situational awareness, and a support infrastructure that includes telecom network, power and material supply, and service. The challenge of upgrading such a system is to achieve integrated effectiveness. This is the key for inland ports. One proposed strategy would bootstrap the upgrade in different phases. At each step, components of various layers are selected for improvement to provide an immediate and high-impact return on the whole operation. A focus of the HSC study is the issue of access control, specifically, intrusion protection, surveillance, and situational awareness. The basic working concept consists of a top-level application layer that requires 6
jurisdictional authorities. Inland ports can emulate the same model when constructing their security systems. Surveillance is particularly crucial. A theoretical feasibility study was conducted with visible and infrared cameras, radar, and sonar. The study included parameterized modeling of threat detection in the HSC environment. Results showed that the unusual riverlike geography of the HSC Buffalo bayou segment presents both advantages and challenges. This channel is reminiscent of the environments shared by many US inland ports. The narrow channel allows easy waterside surveillance, but landside security is significantly complicated by its location Inland Port
ing case study of port security, and focuses on many of the same problems facing inland ports across America. Defense against intrusion involves not only waterside but also landside issues, and requires a balanced and systematic reduction of vulnerability that considers all potential threats. Although several technologically advanced surveillance products have recently emerged, important challenges must be addressed in developing sophisticated countermeasures. Increasingly, inland port security will not be a one-time implementation, but a continuous process of building layers of defense that will integrate and build on several subsystems. IP
Underwater bridge inspection... get the full picture! The MS 1000 Scanning Sonar: Sonar images so clear you’ll think they’re photographs
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To address the need of seeing the complete underwater picture, Kongsberg Mesotech has led research into the use of mechanically scanned sonar for the application of underwater structure inspection. The MS 1000 Scanning Sonar system, fitted with a fan cone transducer, provides the user with both imaging and highly accurate profiling capabilities. Easy deployment arrangements now make it possible to scan and profile both the bottom and vertical structures and produce the kind of incredibly accurate images you see here. Typical MS 1000 applications include: • Riverbed scans for plan-view mosaics • Vertical scans for pier visualization
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1. MS 1000 vertical visualization of a timber crib structure, outfall pipes, and unknown pipe in the wall. The structure was built in 1927 with a concrete retaining wall placed on top of the wooden crib structure. Image courtesy Nautilus Marine Group, Lansing, MI
• Pier and riverbed profiles to accurately determine scour and water depths To find out how the Kongsberg MS 1000 Scanning Sonar system can take the guesswork out of your inspection tasks, e-mail or call our technical specialists for product and application information.
2. MS 1000 vertical visualization of a severely scoured bridge pier. Image courtesy Peter Diving, Russia
3. MS 1000 plan view mosaic of a bridge pier showing well-placed armour rock. Image courtesy Nautilus Marine Group, Lansing, MI 4. MS 1000 vertical visualization of bridge pier showing minor scour exposing the tremie seal but not undermining the bridge pier. Image courtesy Nautilus Marine Group, Lansing, MI
KONGSBERG MESOTECH LTD. 1598 Kebet Way, Port Coquitlam, BC Canada V3C 5M5 Tel. +1.604.464.8144 • E-mail: km.sales.vancouver@kongsberg.com www.kongsberg-mesotech.com
WORLD CLASS... through people, technology and dedication
St. Lawrence Seaway Turns 50 With increased awareness of the economic and ecological benefits of intermodal shipping, the Seaway hopes for a bright future ahead.
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he St. Lawrence Seaway is a system of canals that permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the North American Great Lakes, as far as Lake Superior. It extends from Montreal to Lake Erie, including the Welland Canal and the Great Lakes Waterway. The seaway is named after the Saint Lawrence River, which it follows from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean. This section of the seaway is not a continuous canal, but rather a number of locks and short channels made to bypass difficulties in the natural waterway. The Seaway is celebrating its 50th birthday in 2009. It began as a government initiative, opening in 1959 and costing $470 million, $336.2 million of which was paid by the Canadian government. Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally opened the Seaway with a short cruise aboard Royal Yacht Britannia after addressing the crowds in St. Lambert, Quebec. The giant shipping lane was supposed to be a highway that would turn Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago into great inland ports, spurring industrial development on the North American continent. But times change. The expansion of the Interstate highway system in the United States, plus the Autoroutes of Quebec, the 400 series of freeways in Ontario and the Trans-Canada Highway made trucking supreme. Transports could carry shipping containers at high speed across the continent in a world of cheap gas and disregard of the environment. So rather than turning inland cities into great ports, Seaway shipping tended to carry bulk products such as wheat, coal and iron ore rather than the accoutrements of urban retail society. The route was useful, but not as successful as was first hoped. Toronto became a place where roads converged rather than shipping lanes. Ironically, the Seaway’s opening is sometimes blamed for making the Erie Canal obsolete, thus setting off the severe 8
economic decline of several cities in upstate New York. Some unwanted travellers appeared in the Seaway. The zebra mussel hitched a ride in the ballast of ocean-going boats. These destructive mollusks have interfered with
once-pristine river; entire communities had to be eliminated to accommodate raising water levels, which were needed to permit shipping and electrical generation; wetlands have been destroyed; and dredging has ruined river and lake bottoms.
the food chain in the river and the Great Lakes. They also foul the bottom of boats and municipal water intakes. So too the lamprey eel, a parasitic beast that latches onto the side of fish, slowly killing them. This was not in the plans of the Seaway, just as the growth of trucking was not either. Other challenges face the Seaway. Only 10 percent of ocean-going vessels can ply the waterway; the rest don’t fit through the locks. Also, the shipping channels in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence aren’t as deep as the ocean, further limiting the vessels which can take advantage of this inland highway. With global warming, the lakes are expected to become even more shallow. That’s not the end of difficulties on the Seaway. Oil pollution has fouled the
Still, there have been benefits. Jobs were created to build the project and jobs remain fixing it. Renewable hydro power is generated on the river. And there is a future for the Seaway. As oil becomes more expensive, modes of transportation such as shipping and rail, which carry large loads cheaply, will become more important. Furthermore, trains and ships give off much fewer greenhouse gases than trucks. As intermodal transport grows and inland ports and waterways gain an even stronger economic foothold, he Seaway could become important again in ways that its founders 50 years ago could not have imagined. IP From the Ottowa Sentinel.
Inland Port
Kirby Corporation
PANYSPOTLIGHTCOMPANYSPOTLIGHTCOMPANYSPOTLIGHTCOMPANYSPOTLIGHTCOMPANYSPOTLIGHTCOMPANYSPOTLIGHTCOMPANYSPOTLIGHTCO
Putting America’s Waterways to Work With headquarters in Houston, Texas, Kirby Corporation is a leading inland tank barge operator, transporting various petroleum and agricultural chemical products throughout the Mississippi River System and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Kirby also owns and operates four ocean-going barge and tug units, transporting dry-bulk commodities in United States coastwise trade. The company also services medium and high-speed diesel engines and reduction gears, and sells diesel engine parts, through its subsidiary, Kirby Engine Systems.
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irby Corporation, through its subsidiary Kirby Inland Marine, LP, is the largest and one of the fastest growing and most efficient transporters of bulk liquid products on the Mississippi River System and Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Kirby is one of only a few carriers capable of servicing its customers’ complete inland transportation requirements. Through its subsidiary Kirby Engine Systems, Inc., and its three operating subsidiaries, Marine Systems, Inc., Engine Systems, Inc. and Rail Systems, Inc., the company is also engaged in the in-house and in-field overhaul and repair of large mediumspeed and high-speed diesel engines, and related parts sales. The history of Kirby can be traced back to 1921 when John Henry Kirby, a pioneer in the development of the Houston business community, formed Kirby Petroleum Company, an oil and gas exploration and development company. Today, the name “Kirby” is a well recognized name in Houston, with the “Kirby Building” and the “Kirby Mansion” in downtown Houston and a major Houston street, “Kirby Drive,” all named in John Henry Kirby’s honor. The history of Kirby Inland Marine, Kirby’s principal marine operating company, can be traced to 1948, when a group of
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Houston investors, including George Peterkin, Sr., father of Kirby’s Chairman Emeritus, George Peterkin, Jr., purchased River Terminals Corporation, a transporter of petroleum between Houston and New Orleans and cotton down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. This company became Dixie Carriers, Inc. which was acquired by Kirby in 1969. Kirby Petroleum Company operated as a Houston based independent oil and gas exploration and development company until 1956 when, after the sale of its producing properties, the remaining non-producing acreage was merged with three other independent oil and gas companies to form Kirby VenSyn Petroleum Company, a publicly traded company. As a result of the mergers, the Murchison family of Dallas, later noted for its ownership of the Dallas Cowboys, owned approximately 35% of Kirby. Murchison family members remain shareholders of Kirby today. Kirby VenSyn Petroleum Company changed its name to Kirby Petroleum Co. in 1957 and adopted the name Kirby Industries, Inc. in 1967. As was quite common for the time, Kirby Industries operated as a conglomerate with many different operations: oil and gas exploration and development through Kirby Petroleum Co., the manufacture of steel buildings through Kirby Building Systems, Inc., financing of automobiles through Caribbean Finance Company, Inc., property and casualty insurance through Universal Insurance Company, and marine transportation through Dixie Carriers, Inc. Even though Kirby Industries had many different operations, the primary emphasis was on oil and gas exploration and development. In 1974, with the underlying value of Kirby Industries assets substantially higher than the stock price, the Board of Directors adopted a plan of complete liquidation, designed
Kirby barges transport various petroleum and agricultural chemical products throughout the Mississippi River System and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
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Inland Port
to distribute to the stockholders of Kirby Industries cash and the stocks of certain companies. The oil and gas producing assets of Kirby Petroleum and the assets of Kirby Building Systems were sold, with the cash proceeds distributed to Kirby Industries stockholders. The stock of Caribbean Finance Company was distributed pro rata to the Kirby Industries stockholders, with Caribbean Finance Company becoming a publicly traded company. The liquidation also resulted in the stocks of Dixie Carriers and Universal Insurance, and the nonproducing oil and gas acreage, royalty interests and interests in oil and gas limited partnerships being transferred to a new corporation named Kirby Exploration Company. Kirby Exploration Company became publicly owned on September 30, 1976, when its common stock was distributed pro rata to the former Kirby Industries stockholders. From 1976 through 1988, Kirby Exploration was engaged in oil and gas exploration and development, marine transportation through Dixie Carriers, and property and casualty insurance through Universal Insurance. The oil and gas boom of the early 1980’s was a very active period for the oil and gas operation, with extensive exploratory drilling in the Fletcher Field of Oklahoma. The field was not as productive as anticipated, with Kirby relying on the cash flow of Dixie Carriers and the stock value of Universal Insurance to financially support the oil and gas operation. Kirby entered the Kirby Engine Systems business in 1982 with the acquisition of Marine Systems, Inc. At the time a small Gulf Coast Kirby Engine Systems facility, through internal growth and through acquisitions, the operation has grown into the industry’s nationwide recognized leader in the overhaul and repair of large medium-speed and high-speed diesel engines and reduction gears used in marine, power generation and railroad applications. During 1987, after an extensive study and much consideration, the Kirby Board of Directors determined that the future of Kirby should be concentrated on marine transportation and related activities. In April 1988, the oil and gas assets were sold and Kirby embarked on its marine transportation strategy. Following that strategy, in 1990 the name of the company was changed to Kirby Corporation, retaining the Kirby identity as a publicly traded company. During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, under the guidance of Joseph H. Pyne, Kirby’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Kirby grew from a medium-sized inland tank barge company to a diversified marine transportation company. Kirby Inland Marine and Sabine Towing, as well as numerous of the other marine
companies acquired by Kirby, were very instrumental in the development of the US inland waterway system, which is composed of thousands of miles of navigable rivers, canals and coastal waterways. In late 1997, the Board of Directors reassessed Kirby’s business strategy, and adopted a new strategy to focus on core inland tank barge and diesel engine service businesses. In 1998, Kirby sold its offshore tank barges and ships, harbor tugs, and its remaining 45% ownership interest in Universal Insurance Company. In October 1999, Hollywood Marine, Inc. was merged into Kirby Inland Marine, combining the nation’s largest and third largest inland tank barge companies. Hollywood Marine, like Kirby, had a long
Inland Port
history in the inland tank barge business, growing through a series of acquisitions, including Alamo Barge Lines in 1985, as well as through tank barge construction. Hollywood Marine was owned by C. Berdon Lawrence, who became Chairman of the Board of Kirby following the merger. The company’s fleet of inland tank barges has grown to approximately 913, with a current liquid cargo capacity of approximately 17.3 million barrels, and approximately 258 active inland towboats. Kirby has approximately 3,000 employees, all of whom are in the United States. Kirby’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange trading under the symbol KEX. IP Visit www.kirbycorp.com.
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Record Year for Port of Longview
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n a presentation to the Board of Commissioners this spring, Executive Director Ken O’Hollaren reported 2008 as a record setting year for the Port of Longview. In 2008 operating revenue reached a Port-best $23,486,930, the first time the Port has ever exceeded the $20 million dollar mark, second closest being $19,825,917 in 1999. Operating revenue was a reported 26% higher in 2008 than $18,661,118 in 2007. As a result of the record income, net operating revenue (before depreciation) rose more than 100% to $2,854,692. Port officials attribute much of the revenue increase to continued wind energy cargo handling. “Everyone in our Longview Port community should be deservedly proud of this record-setting accomplishment,” stated O’Hollaren, while praising staff efforts. The Port of Longview recorded 1.3 million metric tons of total cargo handled last year, up 16% from 1.1 million metric tons in 2007. While 2008 import tonnages were down 26% for the year, the overall increase was spurred by a 29% increase in the export of bulk cargos, steel, logs and wind energy cargo. “The Commission is extremely pleased with the Port’s performance”, remarked Commission Chairman Dan Buell. “We feel 2008 has positioned us well to weather the uncertain economic climate.” In 2008 the Port welcomed its Liebherr LHM500S Mobile Harbor Crane to supplement the growing wind energy cargo handling operations, as well as attract additional heavy lift cargos. Looking forward into 2009, the Port welcomes the prospect of a grain terminal, which would be the first export grain elevator built in the country in over twenty five years. A grain facility at the Port would provide significant local and regional economic benefits; employment, revenue to the Port and contribution to the local tax base. The Port of Longview is the first full-service operating port with strategic transportation connections on the deep-draft Columbia River shipping channel in southwest Washington State. The Port is located just 66 river miles from the Pacific Ocean, 120 driving miles from Seattle, Washington, and 40 driving miles from Portland, Oregon. Port facilities include eight marine terminals and waterfront industrial property with direct connections to main-line rail and interstate highway. Cargo handling specialties include all types of bulk cargos and breakbulk commodities such as steel, lumber, logs, pulp, paper, project and heavy-lift cargo.IP 12
Inland Port
ORGANIZATIONSPOTLIGHTORGANIZATIONSPOTLIGHTORGANIZATIONSPOTLIGHTORGANIZATIONSPOTLIGHTORGANIZATIONSPOTLIGHTORGANIZATIONSPOTLIGHT
Inland Rivers Ports & Terminals IRPT is an active trade association servicing and representing the intermodal transportation industry. Since its founding in 1974, IRPT has been at the forefront of promoting the benefits of intermodal shipping in the United States.
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ven for those who have experience with inland rivers, ports and terminals, it is important to look from the present into the future by starting at some point in the past. The key word from that past is landings. In the youthful United States of America, truly a land of streams and canals, before railroads and all-weather highways, there were thousands of landings. Each was a model of simplicity, each established at almost no landside cost, and above all each located so a wagon could be maneuvered for loading or unloading. The steamboats, particularly on the smaller rivers, demanded only about two feet of water and each carried a landing stage which could reach to dry land at any reasonable variable of stream stage. Above all, every conceivable item, from needles upward, crossed the landings to service a consumer market within about a day’s trip from or to the landing by horse or wagon. As railcars, trucks, interstate pipelines, electrical transmission lines and many other forms of efficient land transport developed, the all-purposes nature of land transportation on roadways paved with water became predominant only in the field of bulk commodities in units no smaller than 1,000 to 1,500 tons. Each fully loaded barge has, since the WWI era, required a safe water depth of at least nine feet. As a result, the simple landing became a costly wharf with an intermodal transportation terminal for handling, storage, and transfer. The large size of the standard barge unit Inland Port
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dictated that those complexes be located at widely spaced intervals, each associated with mass distribution, accumulation, or production. Successful inland river ports now are few and far between in contrast to the earlier historically successful landings. History also indicates that inland waterways ports and terminals industry has been a dynamic and constantly changing one. The IRPT entered that historic stream in the mid-1970s. The Birth of IRPT A few days before Christmas 1973, Milton Barschdorf, Port Director of the Greenville, Mississippi Port, took personal action which resulted in the birth of the Inland Rivers, Ports and Terminals, Incorporated, on May 29, 1974, at St. Louis, Missouri. The reason for its formation was the inauguration of the first generation of deep-draft container ships carrying special barges which could transport their freight directly to and from inland ports without transloading. The applicable special export/import regulated rate structure adversely effected, directly, the inland rivers transportation industry and, indirectly, the inland rivers, ports and terminals industry. Concerted professionally oriented action through the IRPT, its newly formed trade association, produced the desired beneficial changes. One year after its inaugural meeting, the IRPT published Membership Letter No. 1. It noted that the IRPT had already been recognized as the industry spokesman for inland rivers, ports and terminals by the Waterways Journal, Traffic World, Journal of Commerce, and other publications. It also reported on contacts with key officials in Washington regarding 14 bills from the legislative mill before Congress. Naturally, it also included a plug for new members. Today, the News Bulletin is published quarterly, with the additional publication of timely News Flashes. In May of 1987 the office management was converted from one
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in St. Louis operated on a personal contribution basis to a contract with Public Offices Services in Jefferson City, Missouri. A GROWING ORGANIZATION Those successes generated confidences which, in turn, cleared the pathway to additional accomplishments. Its growing membership created ever broadening internal organizational and individual realizations of the importance of the inland river port and terminal business in today’s internationalizing world of competition. The IRPT as an organization continues to demonstrate that the industry is and will continue to be a dynamic force in the nations’ economic growth and stability. The relatively short historic life span of ports in inland rivers makes it doubly difficult to define or predict the imminent future for the industry. The idea that each is a barge port at which the dryland modes are subordinate to the wet one has been passé for many years. But inland port and terminal managers are, as a group, only now becoming sufficiently aware of that fact for it to create a decade of vigorous changes and growth. The creator of those beneficial changes is that new breed of professional inland rivers terminal managers and port directors who now are united through IRPT in a deliberative action body working within appropriate limitations. IRPT OBJECTIVES The organization’s bylaws set forth seven objects and purposes. The first is to promote and develop the healthy growth of inland rivers, ports and terminals through the exchange of information and coordinated action in all matter affecting their common interests. Inland ports and terminals bring together highway, railway, and pipeline modes of transportation at a location which must conform to a specialized fourth form of transportation, specifically inland waterways transportation. Such a complex usually includes separate indirectly related commercial, industrial, and local government (example - a fire station) activities. Often it takes only one or two very large industries at the port site for that segment alone to constitute a dominating economic factor for the local community. The total port site combination has unusually significant beneficial community-wide economic impacts in direct dollars, indirect dollars, jobs, and added tax base. Accordingly, an inland port or a separate terminal is a complex transportation/industrial facility requiring a wide variety of operational skills and experience to meet the needs in today’s world. The IRPT, through its meetings, seminars, caucuses, newsletters, and other forms of communications, develops a consensus on each specific and timely element of this objective, contacts appropriate agencies and officials with defined analyses and recommendations, and continues until a final solution is at hand. The wide, broad, and deep range of industry experience represented by its membership and their willingness to participate are major factors. IRPT also seeks to promote and develop improved services to shippers, and aid in the development of a more efficient intermodal transportation system. Barge transportation remains the lowest cost mode (omitting the highly specialized pipeline one) per ton-mile and it will remain so for bulk specialized commodities deep within its efficiency sphere as well as some near the boundary of that sphere. In order for the industry to protect and increase its market share, it is constantly necessary to increase the efficiency and thereby decrease the business costs of materials handling between all transportation modes and particularly the “last mile” before loading into a barge and after unloading. For some commodities, the cost of intermodal transfers from or to the wet mode exceeds the cost of hundreds of miles of transportation by barge. The IRPT has directed its meetings, seminars, caucuses,
Inland Port
network have an abundance of land-use newsletters and other forms of communiplans BUT absolutely no water-use plans. In cations to these two related objectives on most cases, it is still not too late to adopt a every reasonable occasion. Also IRPT has total waterfront usage strategy with space to supported and encouraged workshops and meet community demands credit courses on planning including environmental port and terminal facilities ones. for greater operating efficiencies. The IRPT membership A SIMPLE WORD: BOTH and friends have provided Such an approach valuable resources and input. requires liberal use of the Undoubtedly these efforts simple and easily underwill continue. Results are stood word both; that is, published and available to all the coldly analytical and interested parties. calculative approach on the IRPT promotes river and one hand and the broadly port-related commercial argumentative one on the and industrial development IRPT President Jerry Sailors, other. through the preservation Both proponents must and economics development of the Coosa-Alabama River Improvement Association, Inc. recognize that there always of suitable lands adjacent to is some finite limit to the the inland rivers waterways water-use resource available and that they transportation system of the United States. must share it. Therefore, every written Historically, inland river cities were and graphic evaluation must tabulate the forced to develop, first, on a base of wamagnitude of the entire water-use resource terway transportation and river oriented available before either is permitted to stake commerce/industry; and then, typically claims. about a century and a half later, to switch to Both must accept the legitimacy of the mid-city plans for waterfront parks, scenic public’s expectations that each has a duty to values, high rises, and other Central Busistate its case and to challenge the other in ness District (CBD) functions. Most cities/ calculated terms. counties with accessible bankline frontage Both must, within that quantitative on the inland waterways transportation
Inland Port
structure, produce and present for public understanding similar but easily understood data and information. It is in this segment of public argument that the inland ports and terminals industry and their supporting professionals (consulting engineers, land surveyors, hydrologist, geologists, etc.) demonstrate a basic communicative deficiency. On the one hand, the land-use planners and their supporting professionals present attractive graphics illustrating topography, present usages, future usages, artistic renderings, and any such factors. But, they invariably show the water’s edge in totally incorrect and factually incomplete terms and further, they stop short of any understanding or portrayal of the appropriate hydrological factors, hydrographic survey facts, water stages, effects of the landuse plans on water quality, water safety, velocities, quantity of drift, and such. The inland ports and terminals (the commercial and industrial) industry have a capacity to develop and analyze these factors but they must go a large step forward and put them in a form which the public, elected officials, and the business community will find interesting, challenging, and understandable. Both proponents must be required by the public, the elected officials, and others to state in positive and definitive terms a creative position and they must not be per-
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mitted to limit their approach to criticism of the other’s position. Both must recognize that many inland rivers waterways transportation facilities have currently and historically interesting features; that they constitute activities which are, on the average, environmentally cleaner and more attractive than most other forms of transportation; and that they have outstanding safety records including but not limited to rescue incidents in the water-use recreational industry. The point must be pressed in public discussions that a total and complete removal of the industrial aspect of inland rivers, ports and terminals from water-use areas designated for recreational, scenic, historic, and high density urban land-use is clearly at odds with total
community environmental purposes. Both must contribute progressively to public development of a total comprehensive water-use plan with treatment of both recreation, scenic, historic, open space and high density urban usages on the one hand, and industrial, commercial, and economic based usages in conjunction with river and port related commercial and industrial development on the other. A tactical plus can be achieved by always using the word “water-use” as a substitute for the word “land-use” when the topic is comprehensive planning of inland rivers, ports and terminals. AIDING FUTURE DEVELOPMENT IRPT also encourages foreign and
domestic commerce to and from all inland rivers, ports and terminals, as well as the development of water-borne transportation. These two related objectives include: • Assistance in transit information for all modes offered at an inland port/terminal but with particular attention to unique and attractive combinations of inland, ocean, Great Lakes, and coastal assistance to users and industries. • Assistance regarding the safety and handling of freight commodities with particular attention to hazardous materials, a field of transportation needs which the unique combinations at a port can most often advantageously meet. The inland transportation system offers exceptional opportunities in the safe transport of these materials. • Assistance regarding handling of loads which are oversized/over weight for all other forms of transportation. Those oversize/ over weight capabilities reach far beyond the limitations applicable to other modes. • Assistance in combined transportation requirements involving two or more modes. • Assistance in layout and arrangement of transportation and industries at port or land side sites for both present and future efficiencies. • Assistance at Foreign Trade Zones which now exist at many full service inland rivers ports. IRPT MEMBERSHIP The IRPT is an active and responsible trade association with objectives and purposes carefully selected and routinely nurtured to serve the needs and interests of its wide range of members. Members and prospective IRPT members include those whose activities range from an interest in inland ports and terminals to those whose profession, vocational occupation, elected or appointed office, public or private port management or trade is directly or indirectly derived from the land side activities which link transportation by inland waterways to other transportation modes. Those land-side activities include, in addition to other modes, industries at a port or ones which link to a port area, water oriented passenger and tourist industries, connective services such as branch banks or service stations, insurers, planners, engineers, architects, economic and industrial developers, real estate developers, state transportation agencies, and many others. The inland waterways system has many diverse segments. The IRPT recognizes and this diversity with annual meetings, Board meetings, and river basin caucuses. IP Visit www.irpt.net for more.
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Inland Port
Port of Chicago Going Strong
F
ounded at the mouth of a river on Lake Michigan by an 18th century fur trapper named Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, Chicago has a long history as a center of commercial shipping. Fur traders from the upper Midwest used Chicago as the distribution point for their products, as did Midwestern farmers and lumber producers shipping their products east. With the creation of the Illinois and Michigan canal in 1848, creating an unbroken inland waterway from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, shipping in Chicago expanded, even as the emerging railroad industry was eclipsing the era of canals. Port activities remained centered on the Chicago River until well into the 20th Century. In 1909, the City’s Harbor and Waterways Commission offered a plan to construct several piers, leading to the construction of Navy Pier. Four years later, in 1913, the General Assembly passed legislation enabling the City to acquire, develop, and own and operate port facilities within the city limits. THE MODERN AGE The modern history of the Port of Chicago began in 1921, when the State Legislature passed the Lake Calumet Harbor Act authorizing the City to build a deep water port at Lake Calumet. Late that year, the City adopted the Van Vlissingen plan, which remains the Port’s basic framework for commercial shipping and industrial development. Regularly scheduled overseas shipping service was established in 1935 and in 1941 the Chicago Plan Commission published an industrial development plan for the Lake Calumet area. Five years later, Congress authorized the Calumet-Sag Project to facilitate barge traffic between Lake Michigan and the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. In 1951, the General Assembly created
the Chicago Regional Port District to oversee harbor and port development. A year later, the State Legislature established the District as an independent municipal corporation with title to approximately 1,500 acres of marshland at Lake Calumet.
Special Awards St. Lawrence Seaway Port Pacesetter Award 1994, 2004, 2005, and 2006 American Society of Civil Engineers Outstanding Civil Engineering Project Honorable Mention 1995 American Public Works Association Project Award 1995 American Public Works Association Project of the Year/Environmental 1996 American Public Works Association National Outstanding Environmental Project 1996 American Academy of Environmental Engineers Excellence in Environmental Engineering 1996 American Academy of Environmental Engineers Excellence in Environmental Engineering 1996 Illinois Engineering Council Project of the Year 1996 American Association of Port Authorities Environmental Improvement Award 1997
A plan released in 1953 called for construction of a turning basis, docks grain elevators, and public terminals and named the Senator Dan Doughty Harbor with the goal of completing construction by the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1958. The Port opened with great fanfare in 1958, well before the Seaway was officially dedicated on June 26, 1959. In 1960, in exchange for a long-term lease, Union Tank Car created an enlarged Inland Port
deepwater turning basin and additional slips along the east side of Lake Calumet and eventually built 91 liquid storage tanks which featured a combined capacity of 800,000 barrels. In 1972, Navy Pier officially ended commercial shipping. In 1978, the Port District acquired 190 acres at the mouth of the Calumet River, built two new terminals sheds and rechristened the site “Iroquois Landing,” giving the district a second major waterfront site for future development. Governing Body The port is governed by a nine-member Board of Directors, four of whom are appointed by the Governor of the State of Illinois and five by the Mayor of the City of Chicago. Their five-year staggered appointments require confirmation by the State Senate for the Governor’s appointments and the City Council for the Mayor’s appointments. The Board elects its own Chairman and Vice Chairman, and meetings are held on the third Friday of each month at the offices of the Port District, subject to change at the Board’s discretion. Additional Board information regarding members and meetings. Request Info on Upcoming Board Meetings. One of the jewels in the port’s crown is the Harborside International Golf Complex. The Illinois International Port District completed its 36-hole championship quality golf complex in 1995 on land that previously had been used as Land Reclamation. Designed by famed golf course architect Dick Nugent, the course is in the links tradition, fashioned after the waterside upland courses of Scotland and England and is one of the largest and most dramatic adaptive re-use projects anywhere in the country. The complex also boasts a 58-acre training academy and Frank Lloyd Wright prairie style clubhouse. For more information visit harborsideinternational.com. IP 17
Industry News & Notes Southeast Texas Ports Receive Economic Recovery Funds U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) recently announced the ports of Orange and Beaumont will each receive $ 4 million economic recovery grants from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Brady made the announcement on an Orange County tract that is being developed by the Port of Beaumont, before a gathering of officials from both ports. The grants support economic recovery for regions most severely affected by hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters occurring during 2008. The awards were the second supplemental appropriation approved by the Economic Development Administration, which is a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The second supplemental appropriation allocated a total of $400 million in emergency funding under the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, signed into law in September, 2008. The ports of Orange and Beaumont submitted projects to EDA in early January. The projects approved today for the two Southeast Texas ports will help the region with economic development and provide infrastructure improvements to build stronger, more disaster-resilient economies. The Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission assisted the ports in the application process and coordinated communication with EDA. The projects funded by EDA will equip the Port of Orange to
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handle petrochemical products under an innovative cargo transportation system; the project on the Port of Beaumont’s Orange County site will provide intermodal railroad connectivity. The Port of Orange will use the funds to develop new cargo transportation infrastructure at its facilities on the Sabine River. The project consists of the following components: Loading and staging yard to allow the transfer of intermodal containers and project cargo to barges; Three lane heavy-duty roadway 36 feet wide to permit the movement of intermodal and project cargo within the terminal; Construction of 430 foot long bulkhead to facilitate loading of cargo onto barges. These improvements will position the port to participate in “Container-On-Barge” shipments of cargo originating in Southeast Texas. The project will promote economic development and create jobs for Orange County by providing for economical shipping of products produced in petrochemical plants in Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. Project cargo describes a type of cargo that includes construction components and equipment, modules, vessels and heavy steel structures. Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of cargo in a steel container using multiple modes of transportation (rail, truck, barge, ship) without handling the freight itself when changing modes. The method reduces cargo handling, improves security and reduces damage and loss. Container-on-barge is an innovative new method of freight movement that allows ports such as Orange to participate in the movement of cargoes from their manufacturing base to an intermodal port, such as Houston. Intermodal containers are traditionally transferred from their manufacturing plant to the port by trucks or railcars. Barge movement is usually more efficient and cost-effective than rail or trucks.Container-on-barge service often costs the shipper less than traditional truck or rail service, because it takes advantage of the economies of scale of moving several loaded containers in a barge propelled by a single tugboat. The system also results in reduction in air pollution, highway congestion and reduces the number of trucks involved in traditional intermodal movements. A further advantage is provided by loading a container to its maximum engineered capacity, which would make it too heavy to transport over the nation’s highways. However, the containers in Orange will be stuffed with cargo that is currently warehoused at the port, which means they will not travel across city streets or state or Interstate highways. Therefore, the containers can be loaded with up to 20% more cargo than a traditional “over-theroad” truck, which translates into a savings in transportation cost to the shipper. The Port of Beaumont will use the funds to develop connections to the railroads that bisect its 455-acre tract in northern Orange County, across the Neches River from the port’s main terminals. Rail infrastructure will be built to provide intermodal rail connections to the Class One railroads, thereby providing economical rail transportation to all of North America. The port is currently building a $22 million deepwater wharf on the site, the first major construction by the Port of Beaumont on its Orange County property. Previously, the port received a $1 million EDA grant to pay for construction of a bulkhead and roadway on the tract. In 2005, the port received a $3.12 million grant to build a permanent, heavy-
Inland Port
duty access road linking the site to Interstate 10. That project, which was obtained through the efforts of Congressman Brady with assistance from Congressman Ted Poe, is expected to be built this year. The EDA project will link the port’s deepwater wharf and abundant cargo storage area on the tract to the railroads. The Port of Beaumont has already begun using its Orange County facilities to store and process imported steel pipe used to build a pipeline serving the new LNG terminals in the region. The pipe facilities have generated jobs and economic benefits for Southeast Texas. Satellite Tracking of Maritime Containers Globalstar, a leading provider of mobile satellite voice and data services to businesses, governments and individuals, announced that Globalstar Independent Gateway Operator (IGO), Globalstar de Mexico, has launched a multi-mode satellite asset tracking product. The new multi-mode hybrid tracking technology wireless device, or HTT, is capable of providing GPS-based asset tracking location coordinates and alert monitoring information from virtually anywhere. Globalstar will be displaying the new HTT product at the Mobile Satellite Users Association (MSUA) and Satellite 2009 Conference and Tradeshow being held in Washington, DC. later this week. HTT provides customers with the coverage needed to effectively manage the location of their mobile assets such as tractor trailers, heavy construction vehicles, and maritime shipping containers. HTT transmits remote tracking data using either Globalstar’s high quality satellite Simplex data network or terrestrialbased GSM/GPRS wireless network. HTT can also be integrated with a variety of pre-existing webbased backoffice and fleet management tools so customers can visually track their mobile assets using web-based mapping tools such as Google Earth. “Through the collaborative efforts of Globalstar’s world-wide service providers, our customers have an effective and affordable solution to manage and track the location of their mobile assets virtually anywhere,” said Marty Neilsen, Vice President, New Business Ventures for Globalstar, Inc. Mr. Neilsen added, “Using input from other Globalstar IGOs, Globalstar de Mexico designed its HTT device to be easily integrated with current web based mapping capability. HTT demonstrates how Globalstar partners can collaborate, design and deliver a user-friendly solution to a growing international machine-to-machine marketplace.” “Companies’ products and supplies travel throughout the globe, often times with complex logistics, to reach their worldwide markets. It became crucial that those companies have the ability to pinpoint the location of their products and materials in realtime at the lowest cost possible and with the most effectiveness for their logistics departments. That is the mission of the HTT and of Globalstar de Mexico,” said Eduardo Pacheco, C.E.O. of Globalstar de Mexico. “The HTT allows our customers to enjoy the pricing and coverage advantages offered by each wireless technology,” added Mr. Pacheco. Globalstar’s Simplex data offering is a high quality, highly reliable one-way satellite data service that permits customers to use Simplex data solutions such as HTT and integrated back office management solutions to manage personnel and mobile assets using GPS or other location-based software. Simplex data service can also be used for a wide variety of industrial and geo-fencing or security applications to monitor and send information from fixed assets, such as environmental measuring instruments, utility meters, or report the state of various mobile sensor devices and their locations.
Georgia Ports Authority Completes Electrified Refrigerated Cargo Racks Doug J. Marchand, the Georgia Ports Authority’s (GPA) Executive Director, announced today at its board meeting that the GPA has completed the construction of 34 electrified refrigerated racks which will eliminate the use of 600,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually. Just last year, the GPA completed the electrification of its ship-to-shore cranes, reducing diesel fuel consumption by 1.5 million gallons per year. “The completion of our refrigerated cargo racks has allowed the GPA to take 14 diesel-powered generators off-line, reduce diesel consumption and continue our ongoing commitment to make substantial environmental improvements,” said Marchand. “Reducing consumption and emissions is a powerful combination in our ongoing mission to be good stewards of the environment.” The GPA now has a total of 950 slots for refrigerated cargo to further support strong agricultural, poultry and citrus exports. In the past five years, the export of poultry and citrus has increased 116 percent, or an additional 68,311 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers. GPA has plans to build additional capacity for refrigerated cargo. “The completion of this phase of the new cargo racks provides increased capacity and efficiencies for our refrigerated cargo customers while reducing the release of particulate matter and dependence on foreign fuel.” Additionally, Marchand said, the Authority has recently replaced 15 aging cargo trucks with Tier 3 units that emit 57 percent less nitrogen oxide and more than 40 percent less particulate matter. Just last month, the GPA received a $250,000 award to retrofit GPA-owned equipment with devices that reduce air emissions. The engine exhaust enhancements will include diesel oxidation catalysts and crankcase filtration systems installed on 80 units of GPA’s container handling equipment.
Inland Port
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“These equipment upgrades will reduce diesel emissions by 25 percent,” said GPA’s Chief Operating Officer Curtis Foltz. “Further, the retrofits along with GPA’s recent switch to ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel will decrease emissions by a total of 34 percent for this equipment.” Georgia’s deepwater ports and inland barge terminals support more than 286,476 jobs throughout the state annually and contribute $14.9 billion in income, $55.8 billion in revenue and $2.8 billion in state and local taxes to Georgia’s bustling economy. DEEPENING CLOSER FOR DELAWARE RIVER CHANNEL The PENJERDEL Council, a leading business advocacy group for the tri-state region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, recently came out strongly in support of the Delaware River Channel Deepening Project, citing the project’s impact on job creation and overall economic development for the region. The Council’s “Resolution in Support of the
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Delaware River Main Channel Deepening Project” was unanimously adopted by the PENJERDEL Council Board of Directors at its March 12, 2009 meeting. PENJERDEL made the initial regional announcement on the resolution, and PRPA is now following up with its own announcement to the port industry and other constituents in the business community. “PENJERDEL Council members believe if the tri-state region is to remain competitive with other east coast ports it is imperative that our facilities and waterways accommodate and attract today’s modern large cargo vessels,” PENJERDEL Council Executive Director Andrew L. Warren wrote in a latter sent to area members of Congress and other elected officials. “On behalf of the hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women who are employed in tri-state port related industries, the PENJERDEL Council encourages your support of the Delaware River Main Channel Deepening Project.” For the past 50 years, PENJERDEL has been an advocate of economic development projects that will attract and retain businesses in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and northern Delaware. They have been at the forefront of support for a number of important projects in the tri-state region that have had significant impacts on infrastructure, transportation, recreation and conservation. The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority is the local sponsor of the deepening project. Last June, PRPA and the United States Army Corps of Engineers signed the Project Partnership Agreement to deepen the Delaware River’s main shipping channel to 45 feet. The project, which is estimated to cost about $277 million, will take five to seven years to complete. By deepening the shipping channel to 45 feet, the Port of Philadelphia will be better positioned to accommodate the next generation of vessels that require deeper drafts. According to a study last year by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, the Port of Philadelphia’s competitive position is threatened without a deeper channel. The project will enable the port to attract new cargoes, especially from Asian shippers looking to expand into North American markets. The channel deepening project is expected to create thousands of permanent family-sustaining jobs, where the annual average salary including benefits is $80,000. “The PENJERDEL Council represents major business interests through the tristate region, so this endorsement means so much to the PRPA and our allies,” said PRPA Chairman John H. Estey. “While the project has been repeatedly vetted and Inland Port
found to be economically sound and environmentally responsible, there’s nothing like independently-minded business people coming forward and saying that channel deepening needs to get done. We’re honored and pleased to have our friends at the PENJERDEL Council support us on this issue.” PORT OF NEW ORLEANS INKS DEAL WITH NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINES Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) and the Port of New Orleans recently signed a three-year agreement, with a three-year option, which allows NCL to homeport one of its Freestyle Cruising ships in New Orleans through Oct. 31, 2014. The agreement also provides certain berthing privileges through the entire term of the agreement. “This agreement underscores Norwegian Cruise Line’s commitment to New Orleans,” said Port President and CEO Gary LaGrange. “NCL is a valued partner of the Port and a great asset to the entire City and our bustling tourism industry.” NCL was the first cruise line to re-commit its ship to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina – returning its Norwegian Sun on Oct. 15, 2006. NCL has home-ported cruise ships here annually since 2003. “NCL and the Port of New Orleans have enjoyed an exceptional relationship for more than six years. This agreement allows NCL to continue to offer cruise guests in New Orleans and its surrounding areas another convenient drive-to option to experience our unique Freestyle Cruising vacations,” said Kevin Sheehan, NCL’s Chief Operating Officer. Currently, Norwegian Spirit offers seven-day western Caribbean cruises seasonally from the Port of New Orleans. The ship’s itinerary includes Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico; Santo Tomas De Castilla, Guatemala; and Belize City, Belize. The cruise industry is vital to Louisiana’s economy, supporting 3,617 jobs, which result in $108.8 million in wages. Industry spending totals about $149 million annually, which results in $23.7 million in state and local taxes, and cruise passengers account for more than 180,000 room nights in area hotels. The Port of New Orleans is at the center of the world’s busiest port complex – Louisiana’s Lower Mississippi River. Its proximity to the American Midwest via a 14,500-mile inland waterway system, six Class-One railroads and the interstate highway system makes New Orleans the port of choice for the the movement of cargoes such as steel, rubber, coffee, containers and manufactured goods into the interior of the United States.