b'4American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comAlabama, Mississippi port facilities prepare to handle growing activityBy Paul Scott Abbott, AJOTCentrallylocatedalongpeak clearance of 69 feet at the northern Gulf, port facili- the center and vertical end tiesof AlabamaandMissis- walls.The1,600-foot-long sippiarelookingtohandledock with 40-foot alongside increasingcargovolumesasdraftiscapableofaccom-they beef up infrastructure andmodatingabroadrangeof augment service offerings. vessel types carrying a wide Withextensiveinvest- variety of cargos, including mentsfrombothpublic andbulkandbreakbulkgoods. privatesectors,thesemid- Crossdockandtransload Gulf seaports rely upon theirservices,aswellasbarge intermodalconnectionstofleeting, are available.furnish ready access to Chi- The facilitys multimodal cagoandotherkeymarketslinks include CSX rail service, of the Midwest and beyond. with150railcarspotsand Proceedingfromeasttoampleroomforexpansion, west,hereisanindividualwhile the ports location near lookatwhatshappeningatthe intersection of north-south key port installations of this(ACTIVITYcontinued on two-state region: page 10) APM Terminals Mobile offers simultaneous berthing for multiple vessels.a LaBamaP orta uthorityOntrackforcompletion this summer, the project bring-ing the Port of Mobiles lower harbor depth to 50 feet from 45 feet which makes it among the deepestcontainerterminals along the U.S. Gulf, accord-ing to Alabama Port Author-ity officials, who promote the facility as the nations fastest-growingcontainerterminal over the past five years. The terminal,whichoffersthree-dayintermodalservicefrom ship to Chicago, is expanding annual throughput capacity to 1million20-foot-equivalent units, with a target of 2.5 mil-lion TEUs at full build-out. Thestateauthorityis investing more than $1 billion in capital projects throughout Alabama, including in devel-opment of an inland container transferfacilityinMont-gomery, set to open in 2027. Additionalprojectsinclude aninter-terminalconnec-tor bridge for on-dock rail, a logistics park and moderniza-tion of general cargo piers.Billedasofferingthe nationslargeststeeltermi-nal, the Port of Mobile ranks secondinbreakbulkforest product shipments. The port offersdirectaccesstofive ClassIrailroadsandfour shortlines,15,000milesof inland waterways, an interna-tionalairport,andInterstate 10 and I-65.m iLLardm aritimeSituatedabout15miles southofMobile,inTheo-dore, Alabama, closer to the MobileBayentrancefrom the Gulf of America, Millard Maritimeisexpandingleas-ingopportunitiesatitspri-vatelyownedandoperated deepwater port facility.Offering300acresof appropriatelyzonedland forfutureindustrialdevel-opment,theMillardMari-timeinstallationfeatures 50,000squarefeetofcov-ered warehouse space, with'