The state government in Pennsylvania is providing $300 million during the next four years to double the capacity at the Port of Philadelphia’s main container terminal and improve and expand the vehicle-handling and breakbulk terminals.
This capital improvement plan is a replacement of the long delayed Southport project which was to develop a site adjacent to the Packer Avenue Container Terminal. Per Mark Nicastre, a spokesman for the state governor, “This plan is in lieu of the RFP, and will build container capacity at other terminals and add automobile capacity” and “provides an alternate, more efficient and expeditious solution to reach the port’s goals.”
The Packer Avenue Container terminal is to receive $200 million in state and private funds to expand the annual capacity to 900,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), up from the current 400,000 TEUs, while allowing for future increases up to 1.2 million TEUs.
Packer Avenue improvements include the addition of four new electric powered post-Panamax container cranes, construction of new warehouses, relocation of existing warehouses and the dredging of the terminal berths to the 45 foot channel depth.
$90 million is for improvements at the port’s Southport automobile import-export terminal, with the addition of 155 paved and fenced acres. The facilities main terminal will also be improved, with some of the land to be used for either containers or automobiles, depending on the market demand.
The Tioga Marine Terminal is to receive $12 million to improve its main warehouse, with a second warehouse converted into a food-grade warehouse. Rail access will also be improved, and a second mobile harbor crane added.
