Page 27 - Port of Baltimroe Magazine - Jan Feb 2012

BY NANCY MENEFEE JACKSON
Containerized cargo continues to grow at the Port of Baltimore, and the soon-to-be-
completed 50-foot berth at the Seagirt Marine Terminal will allow supersized ships to call here.
But the movement of cargo still faces a 116-year-old, 1.4-mile-long bottleneck — Baltimore City’s
Howard Street Tunnel.
Completed in 1895, the railroad tunnel is too low to allow double-stack trains — railcars that carry
two containers, with one atop the other. Enlarging the tunnel to accommodate double-stacks would
cost billions.
CSX and the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) are working together
through the National Gateway project to build a new Intermodal Container Transfer
Facility (ICTF) south of the Howard Street Tunnel, connecting Maryland freight
routes with double-stack routes in the South and Midwest. The new ICTF,
known as the Baltimore-Washington Rail Intermodal Facility, would
aid the expansion of container cargo at the Port and make it
more competitive in securing that cargo.
STACK
ontrac
New Transfer Facility Would
Help to Move More Containers
January/February 2012 ■ The Port of Baltimore [25]