Port of Virginia adds straddle carriers at Norfolk terminal

Port of Virginia adds straddle carriers at Norfolk terminal    Norfolk International Terminals added 30 straddle carriers at its south wharf this week, Virginia Port Authority officials said Wednesday.
   'Having the 'strads' at NIT South gives us the same capability that we have at NIT North,' said Joseph A. Dorto, general manager and chief executive officer at Virginia International Terminals Inc., the Virginia Port Authority's operating company. 'Over time, we'll reduce the transtainer operation at NIT South as our primary means of handling containers.'
   That productivity comes from eliminating a step in the process of getting containers in and out of the container yard more efficiently, the port said. In the past, yard hostlers ferried containers around the terminal, where they were stacked in rows by large transtainers — a crane and forklift hybrid. The straddle carriers can do the job of both the yard hustler and the transtainer.
   At NIT North, straddle carriers have been in use since 1998, which made way for the 'live gate' where straddle carriers bring containers to trucks waiting in the transfer zone. In July, those straddle carriers were equipped with PrimeRoute and GPS, which are technologies that help the straddle carrier drivers locate containers in the yard by the most efficient route.
   Dorto said that 25 additional straddle carriers will join the straddle carrier fleet at NIT South and that all the new equipment will employ the PrimeRoute and GPS technology.
   The straddle carrier operation at NIT South is part of a larger renovation at the 147-acre terminal will cost $279 million. Work began in September 2002 and is scheduled for completion in February 2012.