Virginia Port Authority

The principal facilities of the Port of Virginia are four marine terminals, all on the harbor of Hampton Roads: one intermodal container transfer facility (dry port): and one inland marine terminal, which it operates via a lease: A site on the harbor at nearby Craney Island has been identified for future expansion.

The agency also employs regional managers throughout the United States and in Belgium, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong, India, and South Korea.

[2] Traditionally, an active or retired senior executive from Norfolk Southern Railway and an individual with ties to the coal industry have also served as members of the Board.

VIT not only systematized operations at the VPA's facilities, but also moved cargo more efficiently and strengthened the port's marketing program.

The second piece of legislation was the Water Resources Act of 1986, a federal cost-sharing initiative that provided for the dredging of all major U.S. river channels and waterways.

The Hampton Roads harbor became the first to begin dredging under the new legislation, with the aim of deepening the outbound navigational channel from 45 to 50 feet (15 m).

A marginal wharf measuring 5,730 feet (1,750 m) long provides five berths for vessels carrying containerized, breakbulk, and roll-on/roll-off cargoes.

To meet increasing demand, the VPA dredged deeper channels, added a fourth berth, built a 32,000-square-foot (3,000 m2) warehouse, purchased three high-speed gantry cranes, and paved another container storage area.

A marginal wharf measuring 3,540 feet (1,080 m) long provides three berths for vessels carrying containerized, breakbulk, and roll-on/roll-off cargoes.

PMT is accessible via U.S. Route 58, which is connected to Interstates 95, 64, and 664; and via rail serviced by Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation.

In 1975, an agreement between the VPA and Portsmouth allowed Sea-Land Service, Inc. to construct a terminal on the property of PMT; the new facility used about one-third of the available space.

Sea-Land built a 600-foot (180 m) marginal wharf, a paved backup storage area, an office building, a warehouse with 26 loading bays, and a maintenance garage.

In the 1990s, NNMT received a $10 million entrance complex, an interchange, scales, an administration building, 27 acres (110,000 m2) of paved cargo space, and an extension to Pier C. In 1994, the Nissan Import Auto Operations facility, previously located at NIT, was relocated to a newly developed 25-acre (100,000 m2) space at NNMT.

The 576-acre, highly automated container terminal was purchased by Alinda Capital Partners, a U.S. infrastructure investment firm, and Universities Superannuation Scheme Ltd., a pension fund based in the United Kingdom.

The $10 million intermodal facility opened in 1989, extending The Port of Virginia's operations 220 miles (350 km) inland.

VIP provides access to markets in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.

The terminal offers a three-door cross dock facility for transferring cargo, a maintenance building, a chassis pool, reefer gensets, and shore power.

It is located at 77° 25' west longitude and 37° 27' north latitude, lies adjacent to Interstate 95, and is 4 miles (6 km) south of downtown Richmond.

VPA is even apparently ready to capitalize on developments initiated in other countries, with a particular emphasis on Panama's canal widening project.

[10] Additionally, the two major Class 1 railroads serving this growing traffic, Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS) and CSX Transportation (CSX), have each been forced utilize circuitous routing to avoid conflicts with tunnel and bridge clearances when crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Allegheny Mountains.

Using a combination of governmental funds from federal and state funding from Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio and with substantial investment of their own corporate resources, both railroads have been engaged in addressing both issues, NS has been working on its Heartland Corridor project by raising vertical clearances in 28 tunnels on an extant Norfolk Southern rail line between the port of Hampton Roads Chicago.

The line extends from VPA facilities in Portsmouth to Suffolk, a location which, due largely to geography of the region, has long been a rail and highway hub in the western portion of South Hampton Roads.

The move eliminated the prior routing of intermodal traffic along the Commonwealth Railway through neighborhoods in Portsmouth as well as reduced the hazards of grade crossings with streets and highways.

Instead, much of the shipping container traffic currently uses West Coast ports such as Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.

By using the canal and east coast ports, potentially a lot of shipping expense for the rail portion to destinations can be saved.

In the Spring of 2010, Norfolk Southern had almost completed the Heartland Corridor project[16] and work on CSX's National Gateway was well underway.

Police officers are responsible for physical security and law enforcement at the marine terminals and the intermodal facility.