Transportation 2025: EDWARDS, STEPHEN

The Virginia Port Authority runs the Port of Virginia, which is one of the state’s chief economic drivers.

Annually, port-related business and activity account for more than 565,000 jobs, more than $124.1 billion in total spending and $5.8 billion in state and local tax revenues.

Meanwhile, Edwards and other port leaders have stayed focused on finishing the $1.4 billion dredging and widening project in the port’s channels, easing the path for enormous freighters arriving in Hampton Roads.

The widening phase was completed last year, and the deepening phase is expected to be finished by the end of this year.

In March, the port wrapped up a $220 million improvement project that upgraded 72 acres of Portsmouth Marine Terminal and 1,500 feet of wharf, providing an offshore wind staging port. The project will support Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project, which calls for the construction of 176 wind turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach by 2026.

Edwards joined the port in 2021 after serving as CEO of TraPac, Global Container Terminals and Ports America. He’s an ex officio member of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s board.

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