Page 27 - Port of Baltimore Magazine May/June 2013

May/June 2013 ■ The Port of Baltimore [25]
efforts and related highway projects,
with the remainder required to handle the
anticipated increase in container business.
“This day is really all about jobs — and
it’s about progress,” Gov. O’Malley said at
the celebration. “We’ve taken the actions
necessary to create jobs and expand
opportunity.”
By all accounts, Seagirt’s new
capabilities are a boon for Maryland.
“The longer-term economic benefits
to our state are immense,” noted
Christopher H. Lee, Chairman of Ports
America Chesapeake and Founder and
Managing Partner of Highstar Capital, an
independently owned and operated private-
equity firm. “For America, it shows that the
public sector and the private sector can
truly partner together on a win-win basis to
bring our infrastructure back to the world-
class levels we last enjoyed in the 1960s
without onerous tax hikes and hard political
choices between investment, jobs and the
health and welfare of all Americans.”
Calling the public-private partnership
“a game-changing project,” Lee thanked
Sen. Barbara Mikulski and other Maryland
elected officials for “once again proving
that, in Maryland, we get things done the
right way.”
“This great port of ours will remain a
Making Way for Mega-Ships
With the expected completion of the Panama Canal
expansion in two years’ time, U.S. East Coast ports
will start receiving a larger number of vessels,
including mega-ships of ever-increasing size and
container capacity. Baltimore is now one of two East
Coast ports to have both a 50-foot-deep channel
and 50-foot-deep berth, as well as new cranes that
allow for the mega-ships’ cargo to be moved with
maximum efficiency.
The cranes at Seagirt Berth IV are certified
for 14,000-TEU vessels, which means that the
terminal is able to handle the largest class of
ships that will be arriving via the canal . Each
crane is 400 feet tall with the boom fully raised, can
lift 187,500 pounds of cargo and can reach across 22
containers on a ship.
Highstar Capital’s Christopher H. Lee, who
touted the “long-term economic benefits” of the
terminal, was honored with a gift presentation
by Gov. Martin O’Malley.
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KATHY BERGREN SMITH