Lauren Brand, a transportation and logistics industry veteran, has been brought in to breathe new life into the effort and to bring the 'good news' to industry. A Marine Highway Advisory Board is currently being established and the Tri-Lateral Short Sea Working Group, established in 2003, will meet next in Washington in January of 2011.

I had the bright idea to call Sean Connaughton, the former U.S. Maritime Administrator, now serving as Virginia's Secretary of Transportation. Unlike current Marad employees, he is actually allowed to have conversations with reporters, he provided details of the Commonwealth's efforts to bring shortsea shipping into the mainstream multimodal equation.

In Virginia, any number of shortsea efforts is alreadystarting to yield fruit. Probably the most obvious of these initiatives involves the so-called "I-64 Express" which involves a container barge service running between Norfolk/Hampton Roads andthe niche port of Richmond. Started in 2008 with Virginia Port Authority, State and Richmond MPO funds, it continues to run today with this mix. 

Last year alone, the barges effectively removed 12,000 trucks from Virginia highways. This year, Connaughton hopes to see the equivalent of 14,000 trucks taken off the highways.

 The unique barge container barge service has recently been designated an "American Marine Highway" by the Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. Virginia.

Governor McDonnell recently announced the resumption of a Rail-Barge Service from Eastern Shore to the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. Suspended because of $1 million in structural deficiencies related to barge safety, the program now goes back into service, in part thanks to state grant money. The concept is simple - and it removes trucks from the highways.

Finally, and in what will become the real test of a port authority's ability to fully manage a shortsea shipping program, the port of Norfolk, VA boasts a channel that is dredged to 50 feet; the deepest access on the East Coast and arguably the only channel which is ready to handle the newest generation of mega-containerships that will soon begin transiting the Panama Canal. A little help from Congress with the Harbor Maintenance Tax exemption (eliminating double taxing of containers on the shortsea leg) would position Virginia as the logical center of East Coast shortsea shipping operations. Meanwhile, the estimated completion date (2014) for the canal expansion is looming large in the porthole.  

I occasionally get reader responses to my shortsea columns that gently chide me to, "Let that shortsea stuff go. It's not going to happen." Actually, it is happening. Beyond competence and persistence, we also need leadership and - more importantly - results. 

    MarPro 15/12/2010