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Virginia: Record Box Ship Draft; Craney Island East Expansion

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Fourteen months after setting a U.S. East Coast record for handling a deep-draft container ship, the Port of Virginia broke its own record. MSC Chicago called APM Terminals in Portsmouth on Friday, May 10, worked through the night and sailed fully loaded the next morning on a draft of 49 feet, 3 inches (15 meters). The port’s previous record, 48.5 feet, was set by the MSC Roma on March 1, 2012. 

Owned and operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), MSC Chicago, is deployed in the ocean carrier’s Golden Gate Service, which links the U.S. East Coast to the Far East via the Suez Canal. Virginia is the last North American stop on the Golden Gate Service before it returns to the Far East.  

MSC Chicago, shown ready to depart APM Terminals with a full load of containers, is 1,102 feet long, 150 feet (or 18 containers) wide, and has a capacity of 9,178 TEUs.  
Photo/Virginia Port Authority

In other news, the U.S. Senate on May 15 approved an amendment to The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) authorizing the federal government to convey 600 acres of Craney Island property to the Virginia Port Authority (VPA) as the eventual site for the VPA’s fourth state-owned marine terminal. 

The amendment clears the way for conveyance of the Craney Island eastward expansion property once the VPA decides the time is right to build the facility. Presently the VPA, in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is engaged in a multi-year project to develop that 600-acre expansion. 

Championed by U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Timothy M. Kaine (D-VA), the Craney Island amendment authorizes the Secretary of the Army to convey certain areas of the Craney Island Dredged Material Management Area to the VPA. Currently, the dredge material area and the eastward expansion project are owned and operated by the Corps; the eastward expansion project was approved in the 2007 version of the WRDA. 

"This bipartisan bill provides common-sense fixes to allow progress to continue on this important project," said Sen. Warner. "By conveying authority over certain parts of Craney Island to the Virginia Port Authority, our amendment removes some of the red tape that has hindered a project that is vital to Virginia’s economic development.

Rendering of the VPA’s proposed Craney Island container terminal.
Source/Virginia Port Authority
 

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