Port Of Baltimore

Dredging the port is crucial to economy, won't hurt the bayWhen it comes to dredging the shipping channels leading to Baltimore, Rep. Wayne Gilchrest seems to be a reincarnation of the late Rep. Clarence Long of Baltimore County Mr. Gilchrest has used the same rhetoric, the same overblown fears of contamination to gain the limelight ("Putting spoil in the bay opposed" July 21).But this time Mr. Gilchrest has been able to pass language in the Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives that would delay, if not stop, the use of Site 104 in the upper bay to dispose of the dredged material.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening reached inside the Maryland Port Administration to find its new executive director yesterday, naming six-year port official James J. White as the new head of the state's public marine terminals.White, 49, is a former operations director for the port of Baltimore and has served as interim director since August."It's an exciting time in the port right now, and I'm excited about the opportunity," White said yesterday. "We've got a lot to sell."White takes control of the MPA at a time when its future as a container cargo handler is very much in play.

Moments after he held hands with a band of fellow dreamers and anchored his hopes to a hulking 14,000-ton hospital ship named the Sanctuary, Stephen J. Hammer contemplated his fresh commitment with these words:"I think this is going to be the largest bummer I've ever gotten into in my life."Six years after that inauspicious beginning, his words have proven both true and untrue. The Sanctuary, in a new coat of white paint, sits expectantly at a Locust Point pier. But so far the ship is filled only with big plans -- for a place where women will go in clean from drugs and come out a month later knowing how to balance budgets, get jobs and care properly for their kids.

Hidden deep below the surface of the Chesapeake Bay and the Patapsco River, stretching from Annapolis to Fort McHenry, is an underwater highway for the world's largest ships. It is 50 feet deep, 700 feet wide and 25 miles long, 7carved like a giant trough into the soft ;bottom of mud, sand and clay.People in the shipping business say that channel is a big reason the port of Baltimore survives. While the evolving demands of the maritime trade have left much of the port outdated and empty, Baltimore's channels are as deep and roomy as nearly any on the East Coast today.

"The city that built the railroad just got shafted by the railroad."THOSE bitter words, from an incensed state official, were aimed at CSX Corp. -- whose predecessor company founded the nation's first railroad in Baltimore. He was not alone in his condemnation of CSX for its duplicity in sabotaging the Port of Baltimore's bid for a giant shipping contract.Indeed, that remark was among the mildest uttered by state and port representatives. They are furious over what CSX did -- using Baltimore as a pawn to leverage a better deal out of New York and New Jersey.

The Norwegian steamship company Wilhelmsen Lines will move its North American headquarters out of Baltimore later this year as part of a merger announced yesterday with its Swedish competitor, Wallenius Lines.The two companies will merge to form the largest operator of automobile-carrying and "roll-on/roll-off" cargo ships in the world, and combine their U.S. headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, N.J.Each line brings more than 100 ships to the port of Baltimore annually, ranking them among the port's largest customers.

Port officials in New York unveiled a $733 million plan yesterday to dredge the city's shipping channels, a 5-foot deepening project that could cut into Baltimore's hopes of becoming an East Coast megaport.The project, to be completed by 2004, will deepen the approach channels at the Port of New York and New Jersey to 45 feet.Whether that will be enough to persuade shipping giants Maersk Inc. and Sea-Land Service Inc. to choose New York over Baltimore as their new East Coast hub is uncertain -- the companies have asked for a 50-foot depth, which the port of Baltimore already can provide.

Port of Baltimore officials said yesterday that they are in the early stages of negotiations to build a hub for one of the world's largest cargo transportation carriers.If such a hub is built, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the world's largest operator of automobile-carrying and "roll-on, roll-off" cargo ships, will consolidate its North Atlantic operations in Baltimore.The project would cost about $10 million and cover about 50 acres, with the potential to expand to 150 acres, according to the state's draft Consolidated Transportation Program.

Proper dealing in port talksOver the years, critical rail capacity has been shifted from freight to commuter operations, and today [CSX's] ability to move high volume rail freight through Baltimore suffers as a result.CSX takes strong exception to Barry Rascovar's strident May 16 column concerning the Maersk/Sea-Land port decision, "With port double-cross, CSX shot itself in foot."The column showed scant regard for the facts and insulted the intelligence and impressive work of the Maryland officials involved in the port decision by suggesting they were merely dupes of CSX.State of Maryland and Port of Baltimore officials are to be highly commended for their efforts in making the Port of Baltimore a highly attractive option for a Maersk/Sea-Land megaterminal.

An advisory council gave the Maryland Port Administration a green light yesterday to negotiate a lease with the owners of the former Navy hospital ship the Sanctuary, lifting a major hurdle to a planned shipboard program for recovering female drug addicts.The council, formed last year to advise the port administration on how to best use its vacant properties, voted 9-1 that the Sanctuary's program was "compatible" with the business of the port of Baltimore, as long as it could be operated safely and it complied with city zoning laws.

Salary: : $30/hour Age: : 49 Years on the job: : 31 How he got started: : Knowing he didn't want to go into the military or on to college, Tony Revels began working at the port of Baltimore as a longshoreman before he graduated from high school. His father also worked at the port as a longshoreman, and the two had a chance to work side by side until his father, Jesse, who has since passed away, retired in 1993. Revels calls that experience "awesome." The job is a union position, and Revels belongs to the International Longshoremen's Association Local 333. Typical day: : "Every day is different," Revels said about his job. He usually works 50 to 60 hours a week, but his days and hours vary and are determined by the number of vessels that come in and out of Baltimore's Seagirt Marine Terminal or Dundalk Marine Terminal.

Dow Jones swaps Travelers, Cisco for Citigroup, GM NEW YORK: - The Dow Jones industrial average is the latest Wall Street institution to be reshaped by the financial crisis. The stock market's best-known barometer is adding Cisco Systems Inc. and Travelers Cos. and dropping General Motors Corp. and Citigroup Inc. The changes were announced as GM entered bankruptcy protection, a move that was widely expected. Cisco, which makes computer networking gear, is filling the role left by GM after 83 years as part of the Dow. Travelers, the property and casualty insurer and one-time division of Citicorp, will replace its former parent.

Two captains. Two ships. One city: Baltimore. One word: Pride. That was the scene last week as the Carnival Pride, a Carnival Cruise Lines' ship, sailed into the Port of Baltimore to begin year-round sailings to the Bahamas, Florida and the Caribbean. On board was a host of travel agents, hotel owners, tourism groups, city officials, media and politicians, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith, Maryland Secretary of Transportation John D. Porcari - recently tapped for a spot in the Obama administration - and Jan Miles, captain of the Pride of Baltimore II. It was a charming welcome committee that greeted Carnival executives who pledged to do more than simply sail in and out of Baltimore.

Changes at the top for General Growth General Growth Properties Inc., the Chicago-based shopping-mall owner whose shares have fallen 95 percent this year, replaced Chief Executive Officer John Bucksbaum, who resigned, with interim CEO Adam S. Metz. Bucksbaum, 52, will remain General Growth's chairman, the company said yesterday in a regulatory filing. Thomas H. Nolan Jr. will be interim president in place of Robert Michaels, who resigned from that post. Michaels will remain General Growth's chief operating officer and give up his seat on the company's board.

Meeting challenges that face the port The Sun's editorial "Double port trouble" (Aug. 7) was both insightful and interesting. But it may be appropriate to consider the rather bigger picture. Baltimore's port extends from the Inner Harbor through Fairfield and Dundalk to Sparrows Point and is made up of a partnership of state-run and privately operated terminals. By some estimates, between 35 percent and 40 percent of the cargo that goes through the port is handled by the private sector.

At least six vehicles reported stolen this year in Maryland and on their way to foreign countries by freighter have been recovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, an agency spokesman said this week. Two of the vehicles, a 2000 Nissan Maxima and a 1999 Toyota Camry, were heading to Nigeria and Niger, respectively, Steve Sapp said in a news release. . Sapp said CBP agents at the port of Baltimore routinely review exports to determine whether shipping firms are complying with U.S. export laws.

The 80-year-old Merchants Terminal Corp. is expanding with a $25 million development of a new perishable foods distribution warehouse in Chesapeake Commerce Center, the former site of the General Motors van assembly plant on Broening Highway in Southeast Baltimore. The refrigerated warehouse company said yesterday that it bought just over 13 acres in the new industrial park from Duke Realty Corp., which purchased the closed GM complex, located next to the Seagirt Marine Terminal, in early 2006.

Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration has amended a proposal that could affect the long-term character of the harbor, making it harder for developers to build townhomes and office towers where port-related businesses once thrived. Responding to criticism from large industrial businesses and the Maryland Port Administration, City Hall added new criteria to a proposed zoning law that proponents said would help protect the harbor's historic industrial character. "We have to make sure that the port of Baltimore continues to stay viable," said Demaune Millard, who is Dixon's director of government relations.

WASHINGTON -- The federal government will more than triple its grant funding this year for port security in Maryland, providing money for a state-of-the-art video surveillance system and technology to help monitor the thousands of trucks that enter the port of Baltimore each day. Additional money to protect regional transit is also getting a big boost in the annual grants announced yesterday by the Department of Homeland Security. Nationwide, federal spending on what the department calls infrastructure protection is increasing 29 percent to $884 million.

With imports surging, the first load of giant rolls of glossy paper have begun filling a new $26.3 million state-built warehouse in South Locust Point. As stevedores worked to transfer 5,550 rolls weighing as much as 7,000 pounds each from a Finnish freighter - a three-to-four-day job - port officials and executives of Finnish paper maker M-real yesterday said the new warehouse was already paying off with added business for the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore. Increased shipments from M-real and another Finnish paper company, UPM-Kymmene Corp.