b'DECEMBER 20, 2021FEBRUARY 13, 2022ANALYSIS & PERSPECTIVE11(ROUTEScontinued fromnearbymultipleroutingJeffersonCounty,Missouri,Duluth completed infrastruc- bottlenecks. page 10) options to inland markets. justsouthofSt.Louis,isture and security investmentsThenotionofrouting bypass the supply-chain snafusOne of those options couldbringingcontainer-on-vesselattheClurePublicMarinecontainerstotheMidwest at East and West Coast sea- includecontainer-onvesselserviceontheMississippiTerminal,enablingthehan- bywaterisnotnew,noted ports.PortsontheGulfofservicesontheMississippiRiver closer to reality, saiddling of containers by directDeLuca, and has been part of Mexicorepresentonealter- RiverfromPlaqueminesLamie. The St. Louis region iswater connection. Duluths vision for over five native, and at least one GreatPort, once those planned ser- also in the process of improv- The terminal, located withindecades.Butsheadded, Lakes port is also making avices come to fruition. Theing its local rail infrastructureaForeignTradeZone,isthetimeisrighttobring play for that cargo. plan is to schedule three towiththedoublingofcapac- afull-servicemultimodalthatvisionintoamodern So are cargo-oriented air- five vessels per week to dif- ity on the Merchants Bridge,logisticshubfortheUpperfocus, and were well posi-ports like Rickenbacker Inter- ferent ports along the inlandamajoreast-westconnectorMidwest,soitsonlynatu- tioned to do it.national Airport in Columbus,waterwaysystem,saidacross the Mississippi River.ralthatweoffertheadvan- Although new variants of Ohio,whichhasbenefittedMary Lamie, executive viceAnannouncementontagesofmaritimecontainerCOVID-19keepappearing from the global trend, in reac- presidentoftheSt.LouistheJeffersonCountydevel- handling to complement ourandspreading,andsupply-tion to ocean carrier delays,RegionalFreightway,abi- opmentisexpectedbytheland-based network of high- chainuncertaintyremains ofincreasedaircargovol- state agency that coordinatesend of the year, said Lamie.wayandrailconnections,thewatchword,thepan-umes. Before COVID, saidregionaldevelopmentinWith the success were cur- said Deb DeLuca, executivedemic-fueledsupply-chain BryanSchreiber,Ricken- Missouri and Illinois. Stud- rentlyseeingfromthevari- director of the Duluth Seawaymesswilleventuallyplay backers manager of businessies have shown that routingous ongoing discussions, wePort Authority. Weve beenout, thanks in no small part development, we would seeMidwestfreightthroughbelievethenewcontainer- nurturing this potential for ato the staying power of the maybe80orsowide-bodyGulf ports and over the riveron-vesselservicecouldbewhile,andwereexcitedtologistics innovations spurred internationalall-cargoarriv- systemcouldreducetrans- launched as early as 2024.see it coming to fruition.bythecrisis.Thesilver alsamonth.Nowweareportationcostsby25%toConsidering the signifi- lining of the pandemic, said seeing between 150 and 16030%, according to Lamie.g reaTl akesc onnecTions cantcongestionanddelaysRickenbackersBryanSch-each month.BesidesdevelopmentsOn the Great Lakes, theoccurringatsomecoastalreiber,isthatpeopleare The Port of Houston hasatPlaqueminesPort,ongo- Port of Duluth, Minnesota, isports, she added, we pro- thinking outside the box and emergedasanalternativeingadvanceddiscussionsalso bidding to handle inter- videafluidalternativeforlookingfordifferentsolu-route for some Midwest cargowithapotentialdevelopernationalcontainertraffictocontainerstomoveinlandtionsfortheirsupply-chain ownersservedbySunsetof a proposed port facility intheMidwest.InOctober,andbypassthosecoastalsecurity and efficiency.Transportation,alogistics intermediaryheadquartered in St. Louis. Since late 2019, saiditsManagingDirectorWE KNOWJonathanFalcon,youve seentheHoustonmarket completelychangethanks, in part, to the fact that there are lots of trucks in Houston. On the flip side, more truck-ing capacity drawn to the portPEOPLEhas constrained capacity else-whereinTexas,andfreight coststotheMidwestfrom Houston are up around 50% in the last two years thanks to the increased demand.apM T erMinals Too penf aciliTies aTp laqueMinesALouisianaportwill offer another potential route to the Midwest with the planned developmentofacontainer terminal and intermodal rail facility at Plaquemines Port (SeeStasMargaronisstory onpage18),justsouthof NewOrleansand50miles from the Gulf of Mexico. In November, the Plaquemines PortHarborandTerminal District (PPHTD) announced thatAPMTerminalswill becometheoperatorof thefacility,toencompass 1,000acresand8,200feet ofMississippiRiverfront-age. PPHTD, the 13th larg-est tonnage port in the U.S., covers the first 80 miles of theMississippiRiverfrom the Gulf. (See Stas Margaro-nis, 12/6/2021 AJOT InsightMexicomadeeasy.New APM Terminals in in PlaqueminesShowsImpor-tanceofGulfPortsand Marine Highway)Thenewterminalwill provideanopportunityto writeanewsupplychain playbookforU.S.exporters andimporters,saidWim Lagaay, CEO of APM Termi-nals North America. Import-ers are looking for more ways to reach major regional con-sumermarketsintheSouth1000 Foust Rd., Brownsville, TX 78521(956) 831-45921-800-378-5395and Midwest. The location,portofbrownsville.comadded Sandy Sanders, execu-tivedirectorofPPHTD,is'