By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOT Trade and commerce being generated by the Port of Virginia is akin to a locomotive that cannot be stopped. Or better yet, perhaps it is “the little engine that could.” In this case, that “could” is the potential to increase commerce beyond the port to America’s Midwest Heartland. Here are the details of how this could unfold: In 2003 alone, the Port of Virginia generated 13,983,616 containers of traffic. Market analysts forecast a 10% increase in Asian imports for the United States as a whole in the very near future, with overall growth to the US East Coast expected to be even higher at 16%. When A.P. Moller Terminals completes its $450 million Maersk Terminal in Portsmouth sometime after 2007, that terminal is projected to add one million containers to traffic flows. Some of the projected increase of trade will undoubtedly flow through Maersk Terminal. Well aware of projected trade figures, Virginia Port Authority (VPA) officials believe there is need for even more port capacity and are pushing for development of Craney Island, which would add 600 acres for containerized freight. VPA hopes to have Phase 1 up and operating by 2017. Efficient movement of goods Undoubtedly this huge increase in containers will generate an enormous growth in truck and rail traffic, not only to and from the port, but in America’s Heartland as well. In order for this trade to flow easily and quickly, however, improvements need to be made along certain transportation corridors. Enter the Heartland Corridor project. In an effort to plan for increased volumes of goods, the VPA Board of Commissioners and other groups are actively involved in lobbying state and federal government for what they see as key components to improving truck and traffic ways along what they dub the Heartland Corridor. The Heartland Corridor stretches westward into the Midwest and includes river, railroad, highway and even air transportation. Most essential, improvements needed for the dedicated corridor (the effort has been named the Central Corridor Double-Stack Initiative) calls for double-stack cargo containers from Norfolk, VA to Columbus, OH and on to Chicago along tracks owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad. The various components that the VPA Board and others believe need to be addressed include the Central Corridor Double-Stack Initiative; Pritchard, WV Intermodal Facility; new terminal capacity in Roanoke, VA and Columbus, OH; and the Western Freeway Rail Corridor. “The realignment of the Western Freeway Rail Corridor through Portsmouth to the Route 154/1-664 median would eliminate 13 at-grade rail crossings and allow trains to travel at faster speeds that would provide rail service to the Maersk/Sea-Land facility and to the proposed Craney Island Marine Terminal,” Michael T. Crist, P.E. of Moffatt & Nichol Engineers told the VPA Board of Commissioners at a Board meeting on July 27. Crist estimates the cost of the project would be $266 million. According to a recent report reviewed by VPA, 28 rail tunnels require modifications to provide 20 foot-3 inch clearance for a main route between the Port of Virginia and Chicago and 24 overhead obstruction would need to be removed. That route travels from Hampton Roads via Roanoke, VA; Prichard, WV; Columbus, OH to Chicago. At 1,031 miles, this route shaves 233 miles off rail service that travels from the Port of Virginia to Chicago via Harrisburg, PA and Cleveland, OH. Marshall University’s Rahall Transportation Institute (RTI) has been exploring the economic benefits and costs of clearing a West Virginia routing for the movement of double-stack railroad container equipment on behalf of Norfolk Southern and a number of mid-Atlantic and mid-Western states. Norfolk Southern would like to improve its Heartland Corridor route between Norfolk and Columbus to move its cargo more efficiently and to compete more aggressively with truckers. The Corridor would also allow NS to capitalize on the growing market for intermo