Right Project, Right Time The Craney Island Eastward Expansion will contribute to the Nation’s competitive posture. It will extend the life of the Craney Island dredged material placement facility and will provide land on which to construct the Craney Island Marine Terminal (CIMT). The project:
Promotes continued economic recovery and contributes to sustainable economic growth
Creates thousands of well-paying, long-term jobs through a strategic investment in America’s commercial port infrastructure
Strengthens and grows the domestic exports and manufacturing sectors
Supports clean energy initiatives—reducing the carbon pollution that threatens our climate
A Project for National Economic Growth International trade generates economic growth; as the economy recovers, so too will global trade. Accordingly, as recession concerns ease, focus shifts to the need for increased East Coast port capacity to accommodate the large ships that will traverse the expanded Panama Canal after 2014. Today, many East Coast ports are too shallow or have other obstructions. The Port of Virginia is the only East Coast port that can handle these large ships. CIMT provides The Port of Virginia the cargo capacity to accommodate increasing demand from an expanded Panama Canal Expansion. It is the only “shovel-ready,” fully permitted port expansion project on the east coast. Moreover, U.S. exports are rising due to lower exchange values and emerging market demand; this trend supports U.S. trade imbalance reductions, which benefit the wider U.S. economy. Therefore, by supporting trade growth and providing much-needed East Coast cargo capacity, the Craney Island Eastward Expansion project supports national economic growth:
Promotes U.S. export growth to emerging economies in Africa, Middle East, and South Asia
Supplies the required infrastructure to optimize the President’s National Export Initiative
Supports a resurgence in the domestic manufacturing sector
Contributes millions to the U.S. tax base, increasing The Port’s positive tax contributions
Produces $6 Billion in National Economic Development (NED) Benefits
Stimulates $260 Billion in total cumulative economic activity
A Project for Job Creation The Port of Virginia generates 343,000 Commonwealth jobs, $13.5 billion in wages, and $41.1 billion in revenue. The Craney Island Eastward Expansion will create thousands of new long-term trade, labor, and professional jobs. Accordingly, the Craney Island Eastward Expansion creates jobs:
Generates over 54,000 new jobs with wages of $1.7 billion, and tax revenues of $155 million
Invests $1.1 billion into the economy for materials and labor, creating jobs in the wider economy
Puts Americans to work in construction, transportation, distribution, and port operations jobs
The Craney Island Eastward Expansion supports efficient and sustainable goods movement. The VPA has partnered with railroads to reduce congestion and transportation supply-chain emissions. CIMT—set to move 50% of its cargo by rail—is integral to this partnership. Moving cargo by train removes trucks from highways and decreases diesel pollution. Trains are cleaner than trucks, burning up to 6X less diesel to move the equal freight tonnages. Consequently, the Craney Island Eastward Expansion is environmentally sustainable:
Saves transportation sector 94 million gallons of fuel per year
Reduces 31.7 million tons of CO2 emissions
Powering Regional Economic Growth A key gateway of international commerce and one of the fastest growing ports on the East Coast, The Port of Virginia is one of 10 major ports in North America that moves 90% of the goods in and out of the U.S. and is the fifth largest port in the Nation. The amount of cargo moving through The Port has nearly double in the last ten years and is forecast to double in the next decade.
In 2006, The Port of Virginia:
Handled 2.013 Million TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Units)
Moved 16.3 Million Tons Of Cargo
Handled Cargo Valued At $36.1 Billion
The Port of Virginia is an economic engine for the Commonwealth. The Port of Virginia Economic Impact Study considers the terminals’ statewide and regional economic impact. Handling imports and getting them to their initial destination is included in the impacts from port operations.
Economic impact of terminal operations includes direct, indirect, and induced impacts stemming from the availability and use of the port. Presented in the tables to the left are the sum of these impacts. Figures include direct spending, indirect spending, such as money spent to buy utilities and services, as well as the impacts incurred through secondary spending, as workers pay is spent back into the state economy.
The economic impacts result from:
Port related jobs, tax revenues, purchases for supporting goods and services and wages, which when spent further support economic growth in the Commonwealth;
The terminals and related operations such as railroads, trucking companies and the firms that handle cargo and unload and load ships;
Virginia companies that produce goods for export through The Port;
And companies handling goods imported through The Port, such as retailers, wholesalers and warehousers.
The Craney Island Eastward Expansion supports efficient and sustainable goods movement. The VPA has partnered with railroads to reduce congestion and transportation supply-chain emissions. CIMT—set to move 50% of its cargo by rail—is integral to this partnership. Moving cargo by train removes trucks from highways and decreases diesel pollution. Trains are cleaner than trucks, burning up to 6X less diesel to move the equal freight tonnages. Consequently, the Craney Island Eastward Expansion is environmentally sustainable:
Saves transportation sector 94 million gallons of fuel per year
Reduces 31.7 million tons of CO2 emissions
Craney Island Eastward Expansion By the Numbers
The Craney Island Eastward Expansion will generate over 54,000 jobs annually with wages of $1.7 billion and state and local tax revenues of $155 million. This significant economic impact comes from three sources: marine terminal design and construction, terminal and related transportation operations, and distribution center operations.
Marine Terminal Design and Construction
Four phases of work between the years 2013 and 2032 will require investments in materials and labor of approximately $1.1 billion. This investment will generate economic impacts of $1.4 billion, or $70 million during an average year of construction. This activity will result in approximately 1,176 jobs paying total wages of $36.7 million during an average year.
Terminal and Related Transportation Operations
It is estimated that, upon completion, CIMT will handle approximately 2,500,000 TEUs of containerized cargo. During an average year, as cargo traffic grows to meet capacity, marine terminal operations are projected to generate more than $2.5 billion in total state and regional economic activity. This growth will create more than 28,000 new port-related jobs paying over $870 million in annual wages beginning slowly in the mid-2020s and then more rapidly as CIMT reaches capacity.
Distribution Center Operations Distribution centers (DCs) have become an important part of the import-export supply chain. DCs store, combine and repackage commodity goods for distribution to their market destinations. The additional cargo throughput generated by CIMT will create the need for more DC activity in the region. Total economic activity from DCs is projected to be $2.7 billion in an average year, including almost 26,000 new job positions and wages of $788 million.
The total impact of CIMT also includes the economic benefits generated by wages paid to construction contractors, port employees and/or equipment manufacturers. These wages represent an investment in the interdependent economy of Hampton Roads as a whole.
