Port Of Baltimore Getting Facelift To Accommodate One Of The Largest Container Ships
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A decade after the plans were made, the Port of Baltimore is getting a facelift.
The port brings billions of dollars to the state and generations of Democratic and Republican leaders have voted to spend the money needed to keep the port up to date.
One of the biggest container ships in the world sits at the Port of Baltimore. It broke a record getting to Baltimore -- it was the biggest ship to go through the Panama Canal.
Five new extra large cranes perch overhead to service this beast of a ship.
The cranes were nine years in the making.
"What we didn't have was the big container cranes to get up and over these ships and 50 feet of water alongside," said James White, MPA executive director.
A public-private partnership bought the cranes and dredged down 50 feet to provide enough depth to float these big boats.
By comparison, this class of ship is about double the average size of ship that regularly came to Baltimore.
"The significance of this vessel is its size," said Bayard Hogans, of Ports America. "So this is the largest vessel to transit the expanded Panama Canal."
Bigger size means more economy, and that's the future. So by 2021, another pier will be built here to accommodate such ships.
"So with the economy, as we grow our containers there will be more jobs avail so a better impact to the Maryland economy so we're really excited about it.," White said.
In the state of Maryland, there are roughly 140,000 jobs dependent on the port of Baltimore.
Then after that, there will be two more areas that will be renovated in a similar manner.
Meaning we'll see more of these, a lot more.
