The North Carolina State Port is about to get much bigger. Last month it was announced that plans are moving forward for a $22.6 million expansion. The new addition, an intermodal facility, will make it easier for workers to transfer items from ships to rail cars. When complete the new design will allow the Port to handle another 25,000 container boxes every year.
The Ports Authority received the bulk of the money for the expansion from the federal government. A total of $18 million came from a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. NC Ports will fund the remaining balance.
The project will break ground in January and is scheduled to be finished sometime in 2025.
The Ports Authority would not estimate how many new jobs will be created from the expansion, but they did say the move would require adding port workers, stevedores and longshoremen, river pilots, rail workers, federal agency workers and others.
The announcement of the expansion came on the heels of another announcement made earlier in the month that showed exactly how much work is being done at the Port.
In early June a report was released that showed the North Carolina Port as the most productive port in North America. That’s according to something called the Container Port Performance Index (or CPPI). The rating is based on the time vessels spent in port loading and unloading.
The index studies a total of 348 ports around the globe. In 2022 the NC Port ranked as the 44th most productive port in the world (up from 49th a year ago.)