Trucks and trains still dominate. But a modest barge carries a growing share of state’s port traffic.

Much attention at the Port of Virginia has been given to the supersized and superpowered.

One-hundred-seventy-foot cranes that tower above those stacked container ships sailing into Hampton Roads. Middle-ofthe-channel dredge operations to make the port the deepest and the widest. Rumbling trucks and snaking trains.

But a few unglamorous workhorses — 300-foot barges pushed by a single-engine tugboat — have carved out an ever-increasing share of port activity, and a share of the spotlight.

The James River Barge Service was first brought into service 12 years ago when it moved 149 containers back and forth between Richmond and Hampton Roads.

Since then, the port has put its stake in the ground in the capital city, investing millions into what is now known as the Richmond Marine Terminal. That, in turn, has grown volume. Through October, the barge had moved a record 56,847 containers in 2020, up nearly 9% compared to the year before.

The port says it has plans to continue to grow the line as another way to move the hundreds of thousands of containers that arrive on the shores here every day. Growing demand for imports and exports of products including frozen seafood, steel and pharmaceuticals drove the port to add a second barge in 2016 and a third shortly after.

The barge set up is a slow one: A trip up the James River takes 12 hours. But the model has been a success, even thriving during the U.S.-China trade war and the global pandemic, both of which slowed overall trade down.

“Though volumes suffered, there were areas of business that boomed,” the port said in a news release marking the end of the fiscal year this summer.

That boom?

It was the barge.

Putting a stake down

In 2008, the Port of Richmond was struggling. Ocean carriers were canceling their service to the city due to the Great Recession. So, Richmond began looking for opportunities to restore the facility.

That year, the city funded a barge, with the Virginia Port Authority as a partner. A barge carrying 14 containers left

Norfolk for Richmond. The city and port entered into a shortterm lease and eight years later, the port renewed the deal for 40 years, allowing it to manage and operate the Richmond facility.

They changed the name to the Richmond Marine Terminal and bought a $4.2 million harbor crane to get containers on and off the barge more easily. The facility was repaved, new lighting was put in and more equipment was purchased to move containers around. More recently, the terminal’s bulkhead has been repaired.

“That let everyone know we were in it for the long game,” John Reinhart, the port’s CEO and executive director, said in an

interview.

Reinhart said the Richmond facility can handle about 70,000 containers a year now.

And it has another 14 acres of undeveloped land where it can expand.

There have been other investments, too, including for “powerpacks,” units that refrigerate cargo containers carrying food and beverages.

The port has spent $6 million on two new barges, meaning they have others that can fit into the thrice-weekly rotation if one needs maintenance. It also spent $2 million last year on investments related to Scoular, an Omaha, Nebraska-based company that moves agriculture products on the barge service from Richmond to Norfolk. The setup allows for empty containers headed back

down to Norfolk to be filled up with Scoular products that will then eventually be shipped overseas, Reinhart said. The company’s website says it exports, among other things, grains, soybeans and ingredients for livestock and pet food.

Attraction model

Since the barge business has grown, the grocer Lidl built a 1 million square foot distribution center just north of the Richmond terminal. Brother International, a maker of electronics and home office equipment, did the same. Bissell, which makes vacuums, and Lumber Liquidators also built up facilities around the terminal. Amazon has facilities nearby, too. All use the barge.

It was goods these companies

made that people began buying more of during the pandemic, as government shutdowns led to more workers setting up home offices. Bissell began making a fogger that can be used as a disinfectant at home or a business.

The statistics show barge volumes thrived during the height of the pandemic. Volumes in February were 3,242, up 38% compared to the same month last year. March was up 28% and April was 15%.

The barge does about 4% of overall port activity. The lionshare of cargo, 63%, is moved by truck, and the rest by rail.

Reducing truck traffic

The barge typically is pushed up the James River at night, meandering around 100 miles up the waterway pushed by a tugboat.

The barge line is part of a national marine highway initiative that aims to move cargo by inland and coastal waterways, removing trucks from the highway and reducing traffic and air pollution.

One barge can carry 125 40-foot containers, the same ones you see on the back of tractor trailers rumbling down Hampton Boulevard or around the port terminals. So every barge round trip means 250 trucks off the roads.

Still, given that the port’s numbers would mean about 2,800 containers a day moving on trucks, you’ll still see plenty of truck traffic around Hampton Roads.