“We have already seen the benefits of the dredging project,” said Sean Mahoney, senior director of marketing for PhilaPort. “Back in March, we had the CMA CGM Marco Polo, a 16,100 TEU vessel, call our Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.”
Mahoney said the channel deepening was a long but necessary process since the lines are building larger vessels that need deeper draft, in line with the completion in 2016 of the deepening of the Panama Canal channel.
“These developments made it necessary for the Port of Philadelphia to invest in these types of projects to stay competitive with other East Coast and South Atlantic ports,” added Mahoney.
Mahoney said that PhilaPort is in the planning stages for long-term growth and expansion for years into the future, with projects that include:
- A new berth at Southport Auto Terminal, which is a multi-purpose berth capable of handling Ro/ro, breakbulk and container vessels (expected to be completed by 2026).
- A new state-of-the-art 165,000-square-foot reefer warehouse at PhilaPort Distribution Center, which will expand and increase capacity for reefer cargoes (expected to be completed by 2026).
- A new 100,000-square-foot dry warehouse at Tioga Marine Terminal, which will increase indoor capacity for dry cargo storage (expected to be completed by 2026).
- Procuring additional land on and near the terminal to allow for additional growth and cargo capacity (expected to be completed by 2026).
- Container densification at Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, which will increase container handling capacity to 1.2 million TEU (expected to be completed by 2028).
- Improvement of truck traffic flow on Columbus Boulevard to allow for quicker and safer truck access to PhilaPort terminals in South Philadelphia (expected to be completed by 2028).
Mahoney said PhilaPort’s goals for the coming year are the same as always: to grow volume throughput on all its terminals and provide best-in-class service. And it will continue to promote its status as a specialist with perishable commodities.
“We have the expertise and infrastructure, both on and off terminal, for handling imported fresh fruits and vegetables in the quickest and safest was possible,” said Mahoney. “We have more than 3,400 reefer plugs on terminal with adding another 2,000 mobile reefer plugs during peak fruit import season.
"We also have state-of-the-art USDA/CBP inspection facility on terminal and plenty to truck and rail reefer capacity. Finally, our location on the Eastern Seaboard provides easy access to many refer DCs, including to the Midwest and Canada,” Mahoney said.
He and PhilaPort officials extend their condolences to those affected by the tragedy in Baltimore that occurred in March when the MV Dali crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.”
As far as takeaways from the incident, he said they learned they must be resilient and have strong safety and emergency procedures in place. “All the local, state and federal agencies have participated and inspected all the bridges that are part of the PhilaPort water ways, and we are currently waiting for the inspection report to be completed and recommendations to be made on any changes to infrastructure and safety procedures,” said Mahoney.
Mahoney wanted to add that PhilaPort saw a small increase in cargo volumes and activities due to the incident, with a few containers, steel and forest product vessels being diverted to the Port of Philadelphia for discharge.
