Port of Baltimore ups volumes in 2016

The mid-Atlantic port handled a record amount of general cargo and containers in 2016.    The Port of Baltimore handled a record amount of general cargo and containers in 2016, the Maryland Port Administration (MPA) said Tuesday.
   The mid-Atlantic port handled 10.1 million tons of general cargo during the year, a 5 percent increase from 2015, and 538,567 containers, a 3 percent year-over-year increase.
   In December alone, the port experienced a 23 percent year-over-year increase in containers.
   “Maryland’s strategic investments in the Port of Baltimore have enabled the port to directly benefit from the expanded Panama Canal by serving the new mega-ships,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said.
   The Port of Baltimore is only one of four ports along the U.S. East Coast that is equipped with the necessary infrastructure to accommodate these mega-ships, the MPA said.
   Looking ahead, the Hogan administration applied for a U.S. Department of Transportation FASTLANE grant in December 2016 to double-stack Baltimore’s Howard Street Tunnel, and the application is currently under review by the USDOT. “Reconstructing the 121-year-old tunnel will accommodate double stacked container trains and break a bottleneck that impacts the entire East Coast,” the MPA said. “This project will be key to meeting the Port of Baltimore’s rapidly growing container business with mega-ships from the expanded Panama Canal.”