The search for new and better paying jobs for Baltimoreans could lead straight to the same place where 17,000 area residents are already directly employed: The Port of Baltimore. In a study completed by the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C. based nonprofit public policy organization, Baltimore’s next economic growth spurt could come, with some key investments, from the transportation industry.
“In 2010, the Port of Baltimore alone handled 18 million tons of export cargo, a 72 percent increase from 2009, and an amount that could rise substantially if more companies begin shipping more goods to foreign locales,” said the report, “Building From Strength: Creating Opportunity in Greater Baltimore’s Next Economy.”
“With an average annual wage of just under $50,000, the transportation and logistics sector is a solid generator of middle-wage jobs, many of which have relatively low barriers to entry.”
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake agrees with the study. In a letter to CSX Corporation President and CEO, Michael J. Ward, the mayor asked the railroad company to build its next intermodal facility within Baltimore City limits, thus, stimulating the economy and ending the more than yearlong debate on where to place the station.
“As a strong advocate for the Port of Baltimore, I’m deeply troubled by the slow pace of this project and the ongoing resistance to the idea of strengthening our critical port infrastructure,” said the mayor in her letter.
”With the widening of the Panama Canal nearing completion, we need to ensure that more cargo can be efficiently transported to and from the port in a way that makes economic sense for shippers and keeps Baltimore relevant in the 21st-century global economy.”
In March of last year, CSX proposed four different sites for the new facility that were found suitable with the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT). Two places along the Camden Line in Howard County were suggested, along with one space west of MD 201 in Prince George’s County, and another located in part on land that now houses the Jessup Correctional Institution.
“We appreciate Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s strong interest and continued recognition of the importance of an intermodal terminal to the Port and the City of Baltimore, and her desire to strengthen the local economy, create jobs, and grow the city,” said Robert Sullivan, a spokesman for CSX Transportation. “CSX and MDOT continue to carefully evaluate all options to develop an intermodal facility that will quickly address the state’s growing freight transportation needs and the Port of Baltimore expansion.”
If successful, the city would be better equipped to handle the increase in international trade opportunities that are sure to come in 2015, when renovations to the Panama Canal will be complete. The reconstruction of the Canal will allow for twice as much product to be moved, as it will have the capacity to double stack containers being shipped internationally.
With an intermodal system, materials being shipped internationally can be put into boxes that are loaded onto a truck in one large mega-container. That same container can be put onto a ship that comes into the Port of Baltimore, where it is then put back onto a truck to make its way to a factory anywhere in the United States.
The Seagirt Marine Terminal’s Intermodal Container Transfer Facility currently moves double stacked containers and is set to undergo a $460 million transformation that will allow mega-containers from around the globe to pass through. However, even with a new berth, the station can’t handle the increase in business expected from the Panama Canal widening on its own.
“Containerization is the wave of the future, and has been for the last twenty years.
For the Port of Baltimore, or any of the Northeast Ports, winning a major intermodal facility is something that’s highly coveted. More and more international cargo is containerized.”
Ron Kaminkow, the Baltimore born and raised secretary of Railway Workers United, a national conglomerate of worker’s unions.
“Now a days they take the boxes off the boats, put them on a truck and haul them across town- clogging up the freeways, heavily polluting the downtown areas to bring them out to a rail yard that is at the edge of town,” said Kaminkow.
“To me that makes no sense- it’s inefficient, it’s polluting and congesting the cities and it beats up the highways. If you could go straight from train to ship and vice versa it makes a lot of sense,” said Kaminkow, who believes that the jobs generated from the facility will be a good thing for Baltimore workers.
Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in 2013, with operation beginning in 2015.
