Making headway

With recent expansions nearly complete, and a new Southwest Virginia port under consideration, it’s been a busy year for the commonwealth’s inland ports.

The industrial market from Hampton Roads to Richmond has expanded in terms of industrial space available, says Devon Anders, president of the Harrisonburg-based InterChange Group and chair of the Virginia Maritime Association’s Valley Logistics Chapter. Millions of feet of warehouse space being built near the Virginia Inland Port will allow the Port of Virginia to better compete against other East Coast ports, he says.

The trend of industrial development from Northern states — including Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland — moving southward into Virginia also holds economic promise for the commonwealth’s inland ports, as new business translates into more potential freight.

Development “[is] encouraging for the region, and bodes well for the ports,” says Joe Harris, spokesperson for the Port of Virginia, which oversees both the Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal and the Richmond Marine Terminal on the James River.

Along with capacity for nearby warehouse space, $15 million in structural improvements are nearly finished at the Virginia Inland Port. That includes three new rail sidings and the repurposing of four rubber-tire gantry cranes from Norfolk to the inland port, allowing the Port of Virginia to retire older, less-efficient equipment. The rail sidings will allow the inland port to handle more freight, and the updated conveyances will make the port more efficient overall, increasing terminal capacity by about 40%.

With completion expected later this year, the improvements also include technological upgrades that will help prepare for any future expansions needed, Harris says.

“The goal is to go ahead and prepare it for the next 20 years to make sure there’s ample capacity,” he adds. “We look at this project just like we do with our multimillion-dollar projects in the harbor. This is about keeping ahead of any demand curve, staying competitive and investing because the overall environment — materials, finances, timing, etc. — is right for such a project.”

Additionally, $3 million in improvements at the RMT, which is owned by the City of Richmond and leased to the Virginia Port Authority, are scheduled to wrap up this year. Changes to the front gate will allow faster processing of trucks exiting and entering the terminal and make way for the installation of two new scales. The fenced, 40-space drop lot will give truckers an after-hours option for leaving containers in a secure area adjacent to the terminal.

Both projects are part of the port’s $1.4 billion Gateway Investment Program to modernize and upgrade port capacity, first announced in April 2022.

Improvements to the port’s maritime terminals, including dredging and widening projects in the Norfolk Harbor, automation at Norfolk International Terminals and upgrades at Virginia International Gateway in Portsmouth, also aid the state’s inland ports, Anders says.

Additionally, the Port of Virginia, already the East Coast’s largest intermodal rail port, will be expanding Norfolk International Terminals’ central rail yard, adding capacity to accommodate 455,000 additional twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) by rail each year, bringing the port’s overall rail capacity to more than 1.8 million TEUs.

Adding rail capacity, instead of putting more trucks on the road, is another positive draw for Virginia when companies look to relocate or expand, “especially for those distribution centers coming down out of Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia,” Anders says.

It’s hoped that this extra capacity will translate into a catalyst for development around the inland ports as well. 

While the Richmond and Front Royal inland ports’ construction projects are nearly done, a proposed Southwest Virginia inland port is still under study.

In the 2024-26 state budget, legislators allocated $2.5 million to fund continued feasibility studies on the placement of an inland port at Oak Park in Washington County. While that’s less than the $10 million the General Assembly allocated for planning, engineering and site acquisition in 2023, it represents an important show of good faith in the project, says state Sen. Todd Pillion, R-Washington County, one of the inland port’s proponents.

He views an inland port as not only an economically viable substitute for the region’s former coal-dependent economy, but also as a means to expand Virginia’s reach westward for cargo shipments and rail capacity while creating sorely needed jobs and alleviating some of the heavy truck traffic along the Interstate 81 corridor.

“It’s a huge prospect not only for Southwest Virginia, not only for the industry that’s already there, but for the industry it could bring,” Pillion says. “Having more traffic coming from the Port of Virginia would serve the whole state and could be a total game changer for Southwest Virginia.”