Time for a Bi -State Commission

by Bill Moore, Beaufort Observer, September 24, 2013.

I recently attended a meeting with the leadership of the Port of Virginia as a member of the Northeast Commission. The Northeast Commission is a state funded organization tasked to do economic development in Northeast North Carolina. It is tasked with the development of 16 Counties in NE North Carolina

After listening to a presentation and doing a water tour of the facilities, I am convinced it would be in our economic interest to develop a partnership between North Carolina and Virginia. The Port remains increasingly busy and has projected even greater development and business in the next 10 + years. Currently the Port of Virginia handles over 2,105,877 TEU’s annually.

Cargo is now measured in TEU’s. (Twenty foot Equivalent Units)  In early container shipping the common unit was a 20 foot box or container. Today most cargo travels in those large 40 foot containers we see on ships, barges, rail and trucks. So a forty foot trailer would count as 2 TEU’s.

Currently cargo moves in and out of the Port of Virginia in three ways. Barges account for about 4% of the deliveries. Rail covers about 32% of the shipments. Trucks do the majority of the cargo movement accounting for about 64% of the loads.

The latest trend in ports is to have transfer terminal facilities located within a short distance of the port. Time is money and a smart business man wants his goods delivered as soon as possible. Currently a container is off loaded and may wait a week or more to be loaded, shipped and emptied for use at many locations. By having a terminal transfer site within a few hours of the Port, goods could be broken down, consolidated with other similar destination goods, shipped to their final destination arriving faster thus cutting down on cost.

Enter North Carolina. With a partnership with Virginia, the Northeast could develop those transfer points, creating jobs and putting additional money into the local economy through local taxes and people having more to spend. In addition, since we have a great deal of waterways and facilities near water, our area would be ideal for barge loading, unloading and storage. Remember, in the cost of shipping goods, water remains the cheapest way to move good to and from markets.

The Port of Virginia already considers its customers to be in a 250 mile radius of the port. That takes in a great deal of our state. Why not work in conjunction with the Port to get some of the benefits of their development for our local economy? They currently export a great deal of our goods. They include meats, wood pulp, grains, iron and steel, tobacco and wood products. Their Port imports goods we use to include machinery, rubber, toys, furniture and bedding, beverages and vehicles. It moves goods to and from nations like China, German, India, Brazil, Japan and many nations in Europe.

Currently the Port does about 18% of all the business on the East Coast. With the advent of the even larger ships being built for use in the next few years, I expect that percentage will only grow. Currently the Port of Virginia is the only port on the East Coast with enough depth to handle the big ships (needs about 50 feet in draft or depth). In addition, it is the most northerly port where major and long term freezing is not an issue. This is most important for fragile good affected by extreme cold or freezing.

You may ask what about our ports in Wilmington and New Bern? Wilmington already handles a small part of the containers from Virginia. Logically, if you are closer to Wilmington it makes business sense to ship through that port. It cannot handle the bigger ships at this time without a great deal of dredging. New Bern is a good port but is expected to have issues handling the large ship both in depth and turning radius.

With the long term talk of developing an Interstate 44 corridor from Virginia Beach to Raleigh, NE North Carolina is in an ideal position to take advantage of the Port expansion and tie some of our economic development to the Port.

Currently about 16,000 North Carolinians travel to Virginia daily for employment. Our local economy is already closely tied to Virginia. Our Governor has expressed some interest in working closer with Virginia where economic development for both makes sense.

We could do what New York and New Jersey have already done. We need to explore modeling our program after theirs allowing both states to benefit from the Port. Currently Virginia is involved in a governor’s race. After the election, I call on Governor McCrory and his Administration to begin the process and approach the new Virginia Administration to begin a Bi State commission with the task of developing the Port of Virginia into a regional powerhouse benefiting both Virginia and North Carolina. It is time the State puts a major effort into the Northeast development similar to what they did in the Triangle.

I ask you to contact the Governor’s Office and your state legislators asking them to begin talks about an economic partnership with Virginia to expand the ports role into NE North Carolina. In fact, if you live in NE North Carolina, I ask you to contact your County Commissioners asking them to pass a resolution in support of the Bi state commission and send it to the State.

Together we can make a difference