By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
The North Carolina State Ports Authority’s (NC Ports) long-term goal is to improve access to the Port of Wilmington to support cargo growth, ease transportation bottlenecks and reduce air emissions from trucks. And rail is a big part of that objective.
That’s why NC Ports plans to carry out three major projects over the next few years that involve rail improvements at a cost exceeding $50 million: the North Gate relocation and access optimization; a new intermodal rail yard; and the north property rail storage project.
The authority oversees deepwater ports in Wilmington and Morehead City, and an inland port in Charlotte. The Port of Wilmington has intermodal rail access through CSX’s Carolina Connector in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and is served by Genesee & Wyoming Inc.’s Wilmington Terminal Railroad, while the Port of Morehead City is served by Norfolk Southern Railway.
Late last year, NC Ports learned it would receive a nearly $11 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) through the Maritime Administration’s fiscal-year 2023 Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) for the North Gate relocation and access optimization project.
The $28.5 million project calls for moving the Port of Wilmington’s North Gate entrance to a designated truck route and away from neighborhood streets.
“This project will bring the Port of Wilmington’s North Gate closer to the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and the national highway network. It will also eliminate truck delays and reduce congestion at a very active railroad crossing,” NC Ports officials said in an email.
South Front Street improvements — which are funded for construction in 2027 via the North Carolina Department of Transportation — will complement the North Gate work. The roadway will be widened from two lanes to four and track will be relocated to minimize rail crossings.
Together, the two projects will close the gap of the first and last mile to and from the port, NC Ports officials said.
The PIDP grant will fund 38% of the project’s cost and the authority will cover the remainder.
The Port of Wilmington is served by CSX and Genesee & Wyoming Inc.’s Wilmington Terminal Railroad. North Carolina State Ports AuthorityEnvironmental and design work is underway on the project, utilizing a grant awarded from the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. NC Ports expects construction to take about two years to complete following the signature of the PIDP grant agreement.
A construction manager at risk (CMAR) project delivery method will be employed for the project. The authority currently is in the final stages of the CMAR selection process, NC Ports officials said.
Meanwhile, the authority continues to advance plans for a new intermodal rail yard in Wilmington. The $23 million project calls for creating a 5,000-foot dedicated area for loading and offloading containers at the terminal, tripling the port’s annual container-handling capacity.
Through the project, intermodal capacity will be expanded to more than 50,000 rail movements annually, helping to divert nearly 250,000 containers from trucks to rail at the port over the next decade, NC Ports officials estimate.
“Shifting the mode of freight transportation to rail will reduce congestion and bottlenecks on the national highway freight network and better support the regional need to move freight from the coast to the hinterlands,” they said. “Without this investment, the port’s intermodal activity is capped at approximately 14,000 intermodal rail movements annually.”
A FY2022 Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program grant from the USDOT will cover 80% of the project’s cost, with NC Ports providing the remainder. The RAISE grant agreement has been signed.
Work is underway to relocate tenants and get the site ready for construction, and a notice to proceed is anticipated in early fall, NC Ports officials said.
Following work on the new intermodal rail yard will be construction on the north property rail storage project.
About 6,000 linear feet of rail storage area will be added near the new North Gate entrance. That gate is used mostly by general cargo customers, NC Ports officials said.
“We are not going to start construction on the North Gate property rail storage project until FY2025,” they said.
In the meantime, the port’s volume continues to increase. For example, several large grocery retailers and distributors have identified the port as an efficient and close-proximity alternative to some traditional cold chain gateways to the north and south. That’s led to a volume increase in import produce, including bananas, pineapples and blueberries, and new trial handlings with apples, melons, tropical fruits and vegetables.
