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… you can’t really get it going, effectively establish a true inland port that’s moving cargo until you have the rail access. getting the rail spur though the forest was a challenge in itself. “

And then working through the process with dOT and CSX to get an at-grade rail crossing was very time consuming process. And them fnding funding to get the rail spur in the ground before you have an end user that wants to actually operate a business out of there has been a challenge. Now all of those pieces are falling into place and it just takes time.

– Allison Magrath, Senior Land Planner at

Kimley-Horn in Gainesville, Florida

CREDIT: BNSF Logistic Park the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal. GPA said ARP frst year of operation.

is expected to remove 50,000 trucks and 15 million truck Although many inland ports exist within a couple of hundred miles from local highways each year. miles of prominent seaports, some inland ports exist in areas

The South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) owns and oper- farther away from the coast. The Midwest Inland Port, which ates Inland Port Greer, which opened in October 2013, and is about 160 miles southwest of Chicago in Decatur, Ill., allows

Inland Port Dillon, which opened this April. Situated in Greer, shippers to avoid Chicago’s congestion and tolls. Midwest In-

SC, along I-85, Inland Port Greer is 212 miles inland from land Port features an intermodal ramp; direct access to CSX,

Charleston and about halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte, Canadian National and Norfolk Southern; toll-free access to

NC. For its part, the port of Wilmington, NC has rail access Interstates 72, 55, 74 and 57 and U.S. 51; and an airport. to charlotte, dubbed appropriately enough, “The Queen City These ports have several things in common, they have strong

Express.” Norfolk Southern provides rail service between the local and statewide support, and they are, in most cases, inland

Port of Charleston and Inland Port Greer in both directions. ports located in states where all inland ports and seaports are

In Dillon, SC, at Inland Port Dillon, which is in close prox- under statewide control. Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia imity to I-95 and U.S. 501, CSX, provides rail service in both are prime and current examples.

directions between the inland port and the Port of Charleston. Last November, BNSF announced that three new properties

SCPA said in April that Inland Port Dillon was expected to had been awarded the company's Certifed Site designation. convert 45,000 container movements from truck to rail in the The sites, located in Minot, North Dakota; Avard, Oklahoma; www.maritimelogisticsprofessional.com 21

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