BALTIMORE — Tradepoint Atlantic, developer of the former Sparrows Point steel mill at the Port of Baltimore, has announced plans for a 165-acre container terminal with on-dock rail as the next major step of redevelopment of the 3,300-acre site.
The project, a partnership with Terminal Investment Limited, should lead to hundreds of new jobs during permitting and construction, Tradepoint said. Its executives were joined at the Tuesday announcement by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, and other state and local officials.
“This strategic partnership with TIL is only possible because of the tremendous investment in the expansion of the Howard Street Tunnel and highlights the lasting and growing opportunities here at Tradepoint Atlantic,” Kerry Doyle, the company’s managing director, said in a press release. The CSX Transportation tunnel project is increasing clearances, allowing double-stack container traffic to the port for the first time [see “Baltimore, Virginia, Chicago projects …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 8, 2022].
Tom Van Eynde, TIL Terminal Investment Director for North America, said the new terminal “fits well in our investment strategy to develop the much-needed additional container handling capacity in a sustainable way” and that its location less than 50 miles from Washington “will allow us to serve the third biggest consumer market in the U.S. with a minimum of road miles, awhile at the same time its rail product will also offer the closest rail connection from any port to the Midwest.”
WBAL-TV reports the project will take at least six years to complete.
Tradepoint says its site offers the largest privately owned rail yard on the East Coast, with its own five-locomotive shortline railroad operating 70 miles of track and providing direct access to both CSX and Norfolk Southern.
If you build it, they will come.(To paraphrase the Field of Dreams movie). CSX’s investment looks like it was a smart decision.
I believe CSX investment was supported by plenty of tax dollars as well.
I wouldn’t mind this as much if it didn’t indirectly create a monopoly – psr-era NS borderline doesn’t even want to be in Baltimore nowadays. Yeah they have to single-stack but surely there’s enough business between TPA itself, this new port, and Seagirt to at least keep it solvent…