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Rock and a hard place
The global shipping industry is currently juggling crises taking place more than 7,000 miles apart: Houthi rebels’ attacks on ships in the Red Sea, and a drought that has slashed ship crossings in the Panama Canal. And those came before the East Coast was hit with additional supply chain stresses following the collapse of Balt[...]
Gas exchange
Alternative fuels such as hydrogen and compressed natural gas are attracting interest from trucking companies as the federal government prepares to reduce emissions limits by 2027. The Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules on heavy-duty diesel engine standards starting with 2027 models includes stricter standards aimed a[...]
Assembled with care
If you’re trying to visualize what powers manufacturing growth around Roanoke these days, picture 3D-printed helicopter blades and robotics, not old-style grommets. Also known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing produces objects by creating a series of consecutive layers, as opposed to “subtractive” manufacturing, which[...]
Spies in the sky?
High-level federal concerns over Chinese-made ship-to-shore cranes ramped up in February after President Joe Biden issued an executive order addressing cybersecurity and espionage risks the cranes pose at U.S. ports. Then in early March, a congressional investigation revealed cellular modems had been found on some Chinese crane [...]
Crisis in Baltimore
Since the March 26 container ship collision that collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, ships previously bound for the Port of Baltimore have been diverted to other ports, including the Port of Virginia. The Singapore-flagged container vessel Dali hit the Key Bridge at about 1:30 a.m. March 26 after issuing a mayda[...]
Metro passes $4.8B budget for FY25
Metro’s board of directors on Thursday passed a $4.8 billion capital and operations budget for fiscal year 2025, which avoids massive service cuts, although fares will increase by 12.5% beginning July 1. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which oversees the Metrorail and Metrobus public transportation syst[...]
Fed’s Fifth District economy grows slightly
The economy in the Federal Reserve’s Fifth District (a multistate region including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland) grew slightly in recent weeks, according to the latest edition of the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, released April 17. Published eight times per year, the Beige Book is bas[...]
HRBT expansion’s first tunnel boring is complete
Mary, the tunnel boring machine that has been paving the way for the expanded Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, hit a milestone Wednesday when she finished the first of twin tunnels that are part of the bridge-tunnel’s expansion. Launched from the HRBT’s South Island a year ago, the $70 million custom-built tunnel boring[...]
Baltimore bridge collapse will drive ships to Port of Va.
After a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing the bridge to collapse and possibly claiming multiple lives, ships bound for the Port of Baltimore will be diverted to other ports, primarily the Port of Virginia and the Port of New York and New Jersey. The Virginia Port Authority, [&[...]
Food storage company to invest $77.5M in Suffolk facility
New Jersey-based cold and dry storage services provider FreezPak Logistics will invest $77.5 million to build a Suffolk facility, a project expected to create 80 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Thursday. FreezPak will build a 245,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Suffolk to serve the mid-Atlantic region. The 80 new jobs will be in warehouse operations […]
Buc-ee’s eyes Stafford for third Va. location
The most recognized — perhaps only — hat-wearing beaver in the travel center industry is eyeing a third location in Virginia, this time in Stafford County. Texas-based travel center chain Buc-ee’s has submitted a conditional use permit application to Stafford County for a 74,000-square-foot travel center with 120 fueling s[...]
A sampling of Virginia’s major road projects
HAMPTON ROADS Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project Work continues on Virginia’s largest high- way construction project, the $3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) expansion. The project will widen the four-lane segments of the 9.9-mile Interstate 64 corridor between Norfolk and Hampton to six lanes on land an[...]
