Virginia Port Authority - Portsmouth Marine Terminal

Portsmouth Marine Terminal

Portsmouth Marine Terminal is the second largest of the four facilities, with a land area of 219 acres (0.89 km2). The terminal has a forty-five-foot-deep main channel. The terminal is serviced by 20,100 feet (6,100 m) of rail track, six container cranes, and one gantry crane. A marginal wharf measuring 3,540 feet (1,080 m) long provides three berths for vessels carrying containerized, breakbulk, and roll-on/roll-off cargoes. PMT provides 33,786 TEUs of container storage space; 94,471 square feet (8,776.6 m2) of dry storage space; and space for 260 reefer receptacles. PMT is accessible via U.S. Route 58, which is connected to Interstates 95, 64, and 664; and via rail serviced by Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation.

Most of PMT was built upon reclaimed land containing dredged material from the construction of the Midtown Tunnel. The terminal began, in part, as a port owned by a railroad that served Pinner’s Point. The Virginia State Ports Authority purchased the facility, but in 1965 leased a portion of it to the City of Portsmouth. Funds from the General Assembly and the city paid for a temporary pier.

By 1971, PMT had developed into a conventional two-berth general cargo marine terminal. In that year, the VPA bought Portsmouth’s interest in the facility for approximately $7,418,000.

In 1975, an agreement between the VPA and Portsmouth allowed Sea-Land Service, Inc. to construct a terminal on the property of PMT; the new facility used about one-third of the available space. Sea-Land built a 600-foot (180 m) marginal wharf, a paved backup storage area, an office building, a warehouse with 26 loading bays, and a maintenance garage. Sea-Land also purchased a container crane. Sea-Land developed the terminal under a 30-year lease that stipulated that at the end of the lease the land and facility would revert to the VPA.

During the early 1990s PMT received another high-speed container crane and a dock extension that joined the existing 600-foot (180 m) marginal wharf at the Sea-Land facility with the marginal wharf at the VPA’s facility.