America's Marine Highway Concept Gathers Steam but Virginia's New "Short Sea" Barging Concept is fo

Published May 10, 2007 12:01 AM by The Maritime Executive

It is not yet time to break out the bubbly in the port of Richmond, VA, but better times could be ahead for this mid-Atlantic, inland niche port. Forgotten by the biggest shipping companies who have long since fled for the deeper draft ports of Norfolk, Baltimore and Savannah, the port of Richmond has quietly rolled along for years as a specialty port, catering primarily to the likes of tobacco giant Phillip Morris. One company, T. Parker Host, perhaps best known as an experienced and well-respected Virginia shipping agency, aims to change all of that.

The new plan is a simple one: take inbound and outbound containers off the highways and put them onto barges which would transport these units to and from the port of Richmond. It would begin as a weekly service, with the 80-mile trip taking about 12 hours to complete. Local trucks would then bring the containers to local destinations. The benefits to the local transportation system would theoretically be felt in terms of reduction of truck-related pollution, wear-and-tear on the highways and traffic snarled by hundreds of trucks running back and forth up the interstate highway from Hampton Roads.

T. Parker Host, the plan’s sponsor, says that it can begin to make money with payloads of just 150 containers per trip. And the potential for full-and-down loads for the inbound leg of the journey looks to be very bright. Outbound, however, finding adequate cargo to beat the trucks at their own game is, at best, questionable. As many as 5,000 containers could be moved in the first year, with an ultimate goal of 250,000 TEU’s transported annually, with the addition of two larger barges when that becomes a reality.

Currently, just two smaller container lines have a regular service to the port of Richmond, but with a controlling draft of just 22 feet, traffic is limited to inland barges and the smallest of container carriers, laden with limited volumes of cargo. The relatively sleepy James River runs all the way to the port from Hampton Roads, but today, most cargo is unloaded in the Norfolk area and is then trucked inland. Running parallel to the river is interstate highway 64, an increasingly busy freeway which eventually intersects the north-south I-95 just north of Richmond. It is this hub that T. Parker Host executives hope to exploit when they launch their fledgling “short sea” barge service to and from the port of Richmond, VA.

Adam Anderson, T. Parker Host’s project manager for the barging initiative, told MarEx on Wednesday, “The port of Richmond is particularly well suited for this task.” In answer to MarEx questions as to whether a shipping agency was the best choice to run a barging operation, he responded, “As far as the commercial side of the business, we’ve been doing that for years. The barge itself is really the last piece of the puzzle.” What T. Parker Host lacks in marine experience, however, it more than makes up for in enthusiasm and local knowledge. T. Parker Host has operated in the Richmond area for at least 80 years.

The new barging plan has been characterized by Port of Richmond Executive Director Martin Moynihan as, “A good idea.” Clearly, a successful inland container barge route to Richmond will be a good thing for the port, but Moynihan says it goes beyond a new transit route for cargo. “This new service will be market driven -- not service driven,” he said on Wednesday. He went on to say that moving empty barges down the James River back to Hampton Roads was not part of the plan. “Outbound cargo is the big question,” he continued, “but there is more than enough cargo for everyone. We’re not looking to compete with trucking. This model will work for local Richmond-metro area cargoes, not international freight.”

So far, so good. But even Moynihan admits that it has been tried before. A previous effort by Pan American Independent Line was eventually abandoned. And still to be ironed out are the rules by which a loaded container barge could squeeze by an outbound container vessel in a channel which narrows to just 200 feet wide in certain places. Under these conditions, the concept of “bank suction” could take on a whole new meaning in a channel where the controlling depth is just 22 feet.

Looking beyond all the hype over the newest proposal to bring back to life “America’s Marine Highway,” there are still many hurdles to clear before this short sea shipping initiative can become a successful reality. First and foremost, the plan’s sponsor is looking for seed money in the form of a federal grant of as much as $500,000. The money, says Adam Anderson, “would prove the concept before real profits began to be made.” But Anderson also admits, “We can start without the funding, but at today’s breakeven rates (as compared to trucks) it would be difficult to start without it.”

The proposed barge service could potentially start in a few months, if T. Parker Host can secure the grant funding. Without it, Anderson admits, they are probably 1 to 2 years away. But in Washington, the Department of Transportation (and everyone else) is operating under a continuing resolution. Within DOT, the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) would be a seemingly likely target for that money, except that they are not a grant authority. Still, says MARAD spokesperson Shannon Russell, “MARAD has agreed to work with other agencies within DOT that may have that authority.” And similar grants have been made in the past. The Bridgeport to Long Island ferry service has long been hailed as a good example of this type of funding, where literally hundreds of thousands of trucks have been removed from congested highways and put onto an efficient short sea service.

Not withstanding the uncertain chances of seeing any serious funding for the project in the near future, MARAD remains a real fan of T. Parker Host’s initiative. But Russell tempered her enthusiasm by also saying, “The concept has to show legitimate shipper buy-in. This cannot be a ‘build it and they will come’ proposition. There has to be consistent service.” Fortunately, both Phillip Morris and Honeywell have expressed more than a passing interest in the plan. In the meantime, the state of Virginia has been probed to see if they would pick up some of the cost of getting the nascent operation up and running.

In the end, the prospect of removing thousands of trucks and related pollution from I-64 and ramping up America’s maritime industries has to be an appealing scenario for both MARAD Administrator Connaughton and his boss, DOT Secretary and highway expert Mary Peters. So, the only questions left to be asked are (a.) is the business model accurate and (b.) is the time right?

In the mid-1990’s, a consortium of shippers put together a RO-RO service between Houston, TX and an obscure port in Mexico. Called Mexus, it was a novel idea and got some early traction. Some of the brightest people in the business worked on that project, but eventually, the effort folded. Where they left off, others have since taken up the concept and that trade today flourishes in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The time is right for short sea shipping and America’s Marine Highway. Only time will tell if it is time for T. Parker Host to take up where others have failed, in a climate where federal dollars are in short supply and the patience of a booming shipping economy can be measured in the time it takes to say, “economy of scale.”

Joseph Keefe is the Managing Editor of The Maritime Executive. He can be reached with comments or input at [email protected].