b'2American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comBeyond the gates:TERMINAL OPERATORS 2025influences and trendsContainerterminalsarecomplexplaceswith machineswhosepurposeistoloadandunload ocean containers for onward delivery. While the concentration of effort and investment is rightly on the components within the terminals perime-ter, many of the challenges and chokepoints facing container terminals are beyond the gates.George Lauriat, AJOTA H eimlicHm Aneuver for A sivestructuresforexample) B oxT erminAl fromcollisionsnotonlyships On September 26 th , 2025, dig- of todays size but of those from nitaries gathered to celebrate theships well into the future. re-opening of Baltimores HowardAtypical14,000 TEUcon-StreetTunnel.MarkSchmidt,tainerships air draft is around 197 President of Ports America Ches- feet to 230 feet, while the length is apeake,whoseSeagirtMarineabout 1,200-feet and the breath is Terminal is Baltimores principal167 feet with a gross tonnage of containerterminalnoted,Forapproximately 145,000 tons. And years,thelackofdouble-stackthe specs on these ships is small railcapabilitycreatedabottle- in comparison to the over 20,000 neck that limited the ports full(GATEScontinued on potential. With this transforma- page 4) DP World London Gateway ( Credit: Miru Visuals)See accompanying story on page 10.tiveproject,freightwillmove fasterandfartherconnecting BaltimoretotheMidwestand strengthening our position in the global supply chain. Theover$450million projectessentiallyunblocked the hitherto restricted access of double-stack trains to and from the CSX system and is a game changer for Seagirt and the Port of Baltimore. Although there is still work to be done, the project opens the door for higher TEU volumes. The Port of Baltimore throughputwasarecord1.26 millionTEUsin2023the yearbeforetheFrancisScott Key Bridge allision and collapse blockedfullaccesstothePort for 74 dayswith around 97% of the total moving through the Seagirtterminal.Seagirthasa reported throughput capacity of 1.5 million TEUs and can handle linehaul 14,000 TEU class ves-selswhichgivestheterminal plentyofroomforahigher volume of freight. Neither the Howard Tunnels more than 130-year-old architec-turenorthetragedyoftheDali strikeoftheFrancisScottKey bridge were directly related to Sea-girt Terminals performance inside the fences, but both had an enor-mous impact on the terminals pro-ductivity. And in both cases albeit over very different circumstances andoverdifferentelapsedtime periods, the port community engi-neered-their-way-out of restrictive choke points.Andnowthereisanew bridge to be builta new Fran-cisScottKeyBridgewhich accordingtotheMaryland Transportation Authority (MTA)the cost will be between $4.3 billionto$5.2billionwithan estimated opening date of 2030. The new costs are considerably higher than the $1.7 billion and $1.9billionestimatedin2024, but while that might be a sticker priceshock,itisntsurprising for a project of this magnitude. And beyond the normal design parameters of any bridge, in the caseofthenewFrancisScott Key span, designers must eval-uate how to protect the bridges supports(thedolphinsaround thebridgedidntpreventthe Dali strike) with robust collision preventionstructures(larger dolphinsandisland-likedefen-'