Port of Mobile moving forward with ICTF

The intermodal rail yard will handle both international and domestic containers.    The Alabama State Port Authority has contracted with R.T. Milord Company for development of the first phase of the Garrows Bend Intermodal Container Transfer Facility at the Port of Mobile.
   The terminal is expected to open at the end of 2015 or in early 2016, in time for the opening of the larger locks in the Panama Canal, said James Lyons, the chief executive officer of the port authority. Initially, it will have capacity to do 150,000 lifts annually, though Lyons said it may not do that volume “out of the blocks.”
   The terminal will be unusual in that it will handle both international containers moving through the APM Terminals Mobile facility and domestic containerized cargo, which Lyons said the port hopes will be attractive to local manufacturers and other shippers.
   A similar mixture of international and domestic cargo is also being handled at the new Port Everglades ICTF, but mixing the two at port intermodal terminals is not common.
   The intermodal rail facility is part of what the authority says is a “three-prong intermodal development” that also includes a 45-foot draft container terminal and logistics park.
   The $20.1 million contract with Milord calls for the construction of two operating tracks, a run-around track, and a car-repair siding track, each at least 3,000 feet in length. Phase 1 components also include rubber-tire gantry runways and chassis storage areas, multi-lane gates, power distribution and lighting, an access road, and related surface improvements. The intermodal rail facility will be equipped with optical character recognition portals at rail and truck entrances to increase throughput efficiency.
   Lyons said the ICTF “is essential to alleviating time and cost pressures for our shippers, while expanding our market reach.”
   He noted that Mobile currently has a ramp operated by CSX, but used to have ramps operated by four railroads, dating back to the days when trailers on flat cars were the primary way of handling intermodal cargo.
   CSX and Canadian National will have direct access to the ramp, but the three other ports serving the port — Norfolk Southern, BNSF and Kansas City Southern — will all have access to the facility via the port’s shortline railroad.
   The Phase I construction compliments the Port Authority’s new $10 million rail bridge that connects the Garrows Bend ICTF with the railroads. The port received a $12 million TIGER grant to help fund the project.
   Lyons said the port has seen strong growth in cargo volumes this year, and it expects a good 2015 as well.
   Mobile is served by a CMA CGM string from the Far East that transits the Panama Canal and strings from North Europe operated by both MSC and Maersk. How those services will be affected by the new Ocean Three and 2M Alliances is not entirely clear at this point, he said.
   He said he would not be surprised, for example, if CMA CGM eventually chose to use a larger ship than the 5,000-TEU vessel currently employed in the PEX3 loop from the Far East to U.S. Gulf and South Atlantic. And he said it was possible that Maersk and MSC could combine loops to North Europe and use a larger ship.
   In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Mobile handled 233,756 TEUs, 10-percent more than the previous fiscal year. The port has posted double-digit growth for the past few years.