Getting our ports big-ship ready

At $1.6 billion, Biden’s annual budget includes the highest amount ever to be

taken from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to aid our over-worked ports.

Included is a much-needed $83.7 million to widen & deepen America’s first port –

Norfolk Harbor at the Port of Virginia.

The money finally funds the Army Corps of Engineers to upgrade the entryway

so the newer super-sized container vessels can use the harbor.

Which is good news, as Virginia’s port continues to break TEU volume

records month after month.

These mammoth container ships are roughly the length of 4 football fields & carry

over 16,000 TEUs – laid end-to-end, the containers would stretch 61 miles.

So much needs to be done to handle the sheer amount of cargo streaming

into our nation’s ports and causing endless delays & backlogs.

To help the situation, the Army Corps of Engineers has been working tirelessly to

modernize our coastal ports of entry – “a once-in-a-generation investment in America,”

as the President urged.

Without a doubt, this huge federal allocation ensures our harbors will be big-ship ready.

These important upgrades are just the start of what the Biden team imagines for

the country’s aging trade infrastructure. And we can’t think of a better way to

ensure America’s economic might well into the 21st century.

Jim Pearson is the CCO of JTR Logistics.