Virginia Inland Port Expansion

The Virginia Inland Port (VIP) is next to the Norfolk Southern rail line and two interstate highways (I-66 and I-81) in the Shenandoah Valley. 

It was one of the first intermodal transfer facilities in the United States based on international trade, with containers shipped by rail based on their steamship bill of lading or equivalent. The inland port was designed so trucks with export cargo from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, or the Shenandoah Valley/Northern Virginia region could transfer containers to railroad cars - at Front Royal. The site is a U.S. Customs-designated port of entry that is over 200 miles closer to the industrial Midwest, and on a highway corridor to the Northeast that is less clogged than Interstate 95

Jacobs assisted VPA in expanding the VIP site.  The VPA's objective is to add additional turnouts and working tracks to increase capacity, and to transition the operation from straddle carriers to RTGs. We investigated potential layouts for expanding the VIP. We developed several alternative layouts for the site considering boundary and rail alignment constraints and prepared grant applications for funding of capacity improvements. The initial expansion received grant funding for three new tracks and gantry runway. The original design studies included phased construction of more extensive expansions to minimize impact to current operations and to maintain required rail capacity at all times. The site construction will be complete in September 2024.  The gantry cranes are on site and being assembled and tested.