b'SEPTEMBER 25 - OCTOBER 22, 2023 NORTH AMERICAS TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS NEWSPAPER35Port of Virginia bolsters intermodal capacity VIRGINIA PORTS 2023By Phillip M. Perry, AJOTThis coming January theto do about 78,000 to 100,000 PortofVirginia(POV)willrail containers per year here launch a new intermodal railattheVirginiaInternational systematitsNorfolkInter- Gateway. The new facility is nationalTerminalsfacilitycapable of doing 480,000. So, (NIT), using technology thatwebasicallymultipliedour has already proven fruitful atcapacity just short of 500%.itsPortsmouthterminal,theAndbecausethenew VirginiaInternationalGate- system has proven to be safe, way (VIG). The move is parttheporthasalsobeenable ofalong-termprogramtoto implement remotely oper-employ new technology thatatedintermodalcranesthat enhances efficiency and pro- movecontainersbetween ductivity at a time when thetrainsanditsinternaltrans-POVisseeinganincreaseportationsystem.Ithink intrafficstemmingfromaweretheonlyportinthe changeinimportsourcing.United States that are doing Morecargothathadbeenthatrightnow,saidCeci. shipping from China is nowInstalling remotely operated coming from the Indian sub- (BOLSTERScontinued on continent and countries suchpage 36) Virginia International GatewayasVietnam,Malaysia,and Thailand. The shortest route to the U.S. from those locales isthroughtheSuezCanal, and the closest ports to that canal are on the East Coast.i nterModale xChangesAboutfiveyearsago we created a new concept for howintermodalexchanges on a container terminal would work, said Rich Ceci, Senior VPTechnology&Project ManagementatThePort ofVirginia.Theideawas ratherthanbuildsevenor eight tracks with a big crane overthetop,andmaybeas many as four or five cranes operatingonthosesame tracksservingsectionsof therailwhenanexchange occurs, we would build only fourtracks.Wewouldthen uselessexpensivecranes thatwouldbemuchlighter andfaster.Wemodeledthe systemcarefully,spending a lot of time on engineering andsimulationmodelling. Webuiltthenewdesignat our Portsmouth terminal, the VirginiaInternationalGate-way(VIG),takingoutthe rail we had built in 2007 and completely replaced it.Rich Ceci, Senior VP Technology & Project Mgt., Port of VirginiaSo far, results have been favorable.Thenewsystem hasproventobeverysuc-cessfulintermsofproduc-tivity, said Ceci. Before its installation we had the ability'