Hampton Roads Harbor News

The idea that cargo, moved from deep draft ports to smaller, niche destinations, can be accomplished without trucks is something that has taken a backseat over the past five years. That’s because, absent the leadership necessary in Washington to move the viable concept forward, it has fallen off the intermodal Radar, replaced with flashy ideas for high speed commuter trains and further obscured by the pouring of billions of dollars of asphalt onto the nation’s highways. Shortsea shipping, however, is alive and well. In the Commonwealth of Virginia – and elsewhere – it is getting a jumpstart that is already yielding dividends. Sean T. Connaughton, Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia and the former U.S.

Sean Connaughton, Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia, oversees seven state agencies with more than 9,700 employees and combined annual budgets of $5 billion. But this transportation professional is perhaps best known to MarineNews readers as the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administrator during the second Bush Administration. As U.S. Maritime Administrator, he was responsible for the daily management of that agency and its promotional programs for the marine transportation industry.

Minimizing the risk of a water-borne or delivered terrorist attack is no small responsibility. Maritime Reporter visited recently with U.S. Coast Guard LCDR Stephen M. Midas, Chief, Planning and Risk Management Department, Marine Safety Office Hampton Roads, for some insights. When historians document the early 21st century evolution of the U.S. Coast Guard, the current era will be considered a watershed for many reasons. In the midst of a dramatic transformation of assets and responsibilities, the Coast Guard, which was taken in whole into the new Department of Homeland Security, has been an exemplary extrovert in efforts to communicate…

The Craney Island Dredged Material Management Area (CIDMMA), a 2,500-acre confined dredged material disposal site in Portsmouth, Virginia, currently provides a long-term disposal area for material dredged from Hampton Roads Harbor. The Virginia Port Authority’s (VPA) plan to expand the area eastward and turn the site into a new port facility has taken a step forward through its award of a design contract to Craney Island Design Partners, LLC, a company led by Moffatt & Nichol and comprised of a number of prominent Virginia architectural and engineering firms, including Fugro, VGS/S&ME, Malcolm Pirnie, Kimley-Horn, MMM Design Group, TBA, Alpha Corporation, American Consulting Engineers, and NXL.