NORFOLK
The Virginia Port Authority's marine terminal off Hampton Boulevard bustles with equipment for moving cargo containers: cranes, trucks and locomotives.
In recent years, the freight movers at Norfolk International Terminals have been joined by earth movers, concrete trucks and other construction rigs.
Nearly $100 million of work is under way to renovate and expand the terminal, owned by the state-controlled Port Authority. The work includes building a central rail yard to load containers on and off trains more quickly; constructing a special 3,000-foot-long road for heavy-duty container carriers; rebuilding 15 acres of container storage yard at the terminal's south end; and adding 900 feet to the northern wharf to accommodate a second ship.
Three new aqua-and-white container cranes are en route from the manufacturer in Shanghai, China, for the new northern berth. The towering cranes, which cost $24 million, are scheduled to arrive aboard a special ship May 25, said Jeff Florin, the authority's chief engineer.
Also, the authority plans to order nine new shuttle carriers for moving containers around the terminal at a cost of about $5 million, he said. They probably will arrive in the fall.
The improvements are critical for handling growing cargo volumes until the Port Authority completes the $2.2 billion terminal it plans to build on Portsmouth's Craney Island, said Joseph A. Dorto, chief executive of Virginia International Terminals, the authority's operating company. The first phase of that project is expected to open in 2017.
Most of the work at the Norfolk terminal, known as NIT, should be done by midsummer.
The projects are the latest in the authority's 14-year effort to modernize NIT, spokesman Joe Harris said.
When complete, the authority will have spent more than $414.5 million on the facility, mostly funded by revenue bonds issued by the authority, he said.
Previous projects have included rebuilding and widening the southern wharf to accommodate eight new larger ship-to shore-cranes and reconstructing other container storage areas.
NIT dates to the early 1900s, when it served as an Army depot. The 672-acre terminal, the Port Authority's largest, cannot expand because it is hemmed in by Naval Station Norfolk, commercial development, a neighborhood and the mouth of the Lafayette River.
"You're continually reinventing the wheel to maximize your space," Harris said.
Growing international trade drives the work. By 2020, the port of Hampton Roads' container volume is projected to increase about 64 percent from last year, according to an authority analysis.
While cargo shipments have slowed this year as the economy stumbles, it makes sense to continue with NIT's improvements, Florin said.
"It's a great opportunity just to stay ahead of it all," he said. "It's all going to pick up again."
Work at NIT has not been slowed by the community concerns that crippled or delayed expansion plans at such ports as Charleston, S.C.; Los Angeles; and Long Beach, Calif.
Noise from terminal equipment and trains has been the biggest concern to the Lochhaven Civic League, which represents the neighborhood south of the terminal. To reduce the noise, the authority has built walls and earthen berms between NIT and Lochhaven.
It also installed quieter reverse alarms on its machines and adjusted lights on the terminal to keep light from shining into homes.
"We feel they respect us as a neighborhood and will work with us in a positive way," said Richard Diamonstein, a civic league representative. "We just hope it continues."
Gregory Richards, (757) 446-2599, gregory.richards@pilotonline.com