Infrastructure Makes Transport Easy in New Castle
Published Apr 16, 2006
The renovated, century-old train station near downtown and Riverfront Wilmington is among the busiest on the Amtrak system.
Transportation means business in New Castle County.
Companies that make their living by shipping and receiving cargo have multiple options for moving their products to and from this area. On the ground, trucks have easy access to Interstates 95, 295 and 495 and the New Jersey Turnpike. By rail, CSX and Norfolk Southern haul thousands of tons of freight each year.
Perhaps the county is best known in transportation circles for the Port of Wilmington, which has been handling ship cargo on the Delaware River since 1923. Nowadays, more than 400 ships are accommodated at the port each year, hauling 5 million tons of import/export cargo.
“Products unloaded here eventually go as far north as Canada, along with Richmond to the south and Texas to the southwest,” says Veren Nohi-Becker, marketing services manager for Diamond State Port Corp., which owns and operates the Port of Wilmington. “We basically supply commodities to one-third of U.S. consumers, which is a huge distribution number.”
Those commodities include everything from automobiles to zucchini.
“We have become the world’s largest banana port and are America’s largest gateway for fresh fruit imports and juice concentrates,” Nohi-Becker says. “Chiquita and Dole are our biggest customers, and they ship tons of produce each week through Wilmington.”
The port is also equipped with America’s largest dockside cold storage warehouse facility, which includes several controlled-atmosphere rooms on site.
“Those controlled-atmosphere rooms take all the oxygen out of the air and replace it with nitrogen, enabling fruits and vegetables to sustain their ripening process for weeks,” Nohi-Becker says. “This way, companies can store their produce at the port until market prices rise, then ship the produce to grocery stores throughout the U.S. at an ideal time.”
Wilmington is the largest port in America for exporting General Motors Corp. vehicles to the Middle East, and it’s the largest port for shipping huge heavy-duty equipment (such as excavators and earth movers) to Africa.
“Our location right off I-495 makes distribution convenient,” Nohi-Becker says. “We don’t have the congestion you often see in other East Coast ports.”
Another important facet of the local transportation picture is the airline industry. Philadelphia International Airport is a 20-minute drive from the northern part of the county, and Baltimore/Washington International is about an hour’s drive south.
In addition, New Castle Airport is emerging as a convenient aviation option. In July 2006, commercial service began there, with two Delta Connection round-trips daily to Delta Air Lines’ principal hub in Atlanta.
“This airport also caters to corporate jets and recreational aircraft, plus the Delaware National Guard bases its fleet here,” says Stephen D. Williams, director of New Castle Airport, which is operated by the Delaware River & Bay Authority. “We have more than 100,000 total takeoffs and landings each year.”
Williams adds that even though Philadelphia International is nearby, there are advantages to flying out of New Castle Airport.
“We offer high-level service in a smaller airport environment,” he says. “We are less congested and easy to get to, and have become an excellent alternative for the business traveler – and even the casual traveler, especially with our new connections to Atlanta.”
New Castle County also has extensive passenger rail service, as Wilmington sits astride Amtrak’s Northeast corridor. The century-old train station near downtown and Riverfront Wilmington is among the busiest on the system, and Amtrak also serves Newark. In fact, Wilmington is the operations center for Amtrak.
Story by Kevin Litwin
Photo by Antony Boshier
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