Page 30 - Port of Baltimore Magazine Oct/Sept 2013
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The Port of Baltimore
■
September/October 2013
Dundalk Heavy-Lift Berth
Upgraded With
‘Direct To Rail’ Feature
S
hippers often ask a port
if they can go “direct
to rail,” meaning they
are able to hoist their
heavy cargo from a
ship directly to a rail line built to
handle it.
At the Port of Baltimore, the
answer was always a
qualified
yes: The Dundalk Marine Terminal
offered a heavy-lift berth with
a heavy rail track, but to get to
that berth, the trains needed to
cross other rail lines that weren’t
as heavy. For such project cargo,
port officials calculated the
weight per axle. If the weight
per axle was too heavy for those
crossings, more axles could
be added — but that cost the
shippers more money.
Now, the answer to the “direct
to rail” question is an unequivocal
yes: At the end of July, the
Maryland Port Administration
(MPA) opened its new fast-land
track — a separate heavy rail spur
that runs along Dundalk Berth
5/6 without crossing other tracks
and also surpasses the tonnage
capacity of the Class 1 railroads
that serve the Port.
“This completes our heavy-
lift berth at the Dundalk Marine
Terminal and allows direct rail
loading to and from ships,”
said Sam Azzarello, General
Manager of Logistics for the MPA.
“Shippers routinely ask if they
can do direct rail, which saves the
shipper a lot of money.”
The new E80 track on the
terminal supports a railcar at
80,000 pounds per axle (a Class 1
railroad maximum load is 71,500
pounds per axle), providing a
seamless connection from ship to
rail and vice versa.
Dundalk Berth 5/6 has deep
water, more than 2,000 feet of
railroad track and accepts rail
service 24 hours a day. Both CSX
and Norfolk Southern move cargo
through the terminal.
On average,
each person in the
U.S. requires the
movement of
approximately
40 TONS OF FREIGHT
EVERY YEAR.
[Source: U.S. Department of
Transportation Federal Railroad
Administration]
Did
You
KNOW?
BILL MCALLEN
