Virginia expansion project nears completion

The final group of specialized cargo cranes that are at the center of The Port of Virginia’s capacity expansion project arrived May 14 at Norfolk International Terminals (NIT), port officials said this week. 

Over the course of the last two years, 86 cranes have been delivered to the port: 26 new cranes are in place at Virginia International Gateway (VIG) and 60 at NIT. The $217 million contract with Finland-based Konecranes is the largest one-time order for automated stacking cranes in industry history, officials also said.

“We continue to mark milestones in the expansion of The Port of Virginia and this one signals that we are very close to completion of the work we started three years ago,” John F. Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, said in a statement. “We have modernized our cargo handling capabilities at NIT and [VIG], and significantly increased our operational efficiency, and these cranes are a big part of the reason.”

The port’s terminal capacity expansion project will be complete this fall, following the final phase of construction at NIT South and the arrival at NIT of two new ship-to-shore cranes. With all of the cranes in place and operational, the port will have the capacity to process an additional 1 million containers–or 46%—annually: 600,000 additional units at VIG and 400,000 additional units at NIT. 

The combined cost of the project is nearly $800 million, officials said.