Trucks disperse majority of cargo coming through the port

Virginia Business
May 2007

Talk about busy. Growth at the ports in Hampton Roads has created a thriving trucking industry for the region, with truckers making more than 4,000 trips a day in and out of the Port of Virginia’s three terminals. In fact, about 66 percent of all cargo leaving the port is transported by truck.

Recent terminal renovations have made trucking easier at the port’s largest terminal. As part of a seven-year, $279 million makeover at the south berth of the port’s Norfolk International Terminals, the port has replaced yard hustlers and transtainers — used to transport containers from ships to trucks — with straddle carriers. The straddle carriers, in use at Norfolk International Terminals’ north berth since 1998, provide a more productive and efficient method for transporting cargo to trucks.

With the older equipment, small trucks called yard hustlers took containers around the port and then a transtainer would stack the containers into tidy rows. The straddle carrier can do both. It can pick up a container immediately after it is removed from a ship and can load it directly onto a truck. Straddle carriers are large enough to straddle large trucks and a stack of four containers.

It’s no wonder that trucking is a popular method of moving goods, with the port’s Atlantic seaboard location a one- or two-day trip from many major cities. It is located 370 miles from New York, 870 miles from Chicago, 190 miles from Washington, and 560 miles from Atlanta.

But the port’s growth combined with the region’s growing population is causing congestion on nearby roads, bridges and tunnels. Many projects, such as widening Interstate 64, Interstate 664 and the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, have been pegged as vital to keep traffic moving and commerce flowing. Another expensive proposal includes adding a fourth crossing between the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads. The General Assembly is hashing out a deal to allow the region to raise money for its transportation needs.