AAPA Seaports Magazine Fall 2016

On Aug. 3, over 40 Congressional staff, media and federal agency representatives joined AAPA and host Virginia Port Authority (VPA) on a day tour that included the Richmond Marine Terminal and the Virginia International Gateway (VIG).

Designed to take advantage of the annual August Congressional recess and the facilities’ relative proximity to Washington, D.C., the tour provided an opportunity to show key policy influencers port operations in person.

At the VIG container terminal in Portsmouth, Va., participants heard from VPA CEO and Executive Director John Reinhart and VPA staff on the state and regional impacts of the port.

Kurt Nagle, AAPA President & CEO, gave a presentation on the national impact of our port system and highlighted AAPA funding and policy priorities (http://bit.ly/PortImpactsAAPA).

On Aug. 17 and 18, the Port of Houston Authority and Port Corpus Christi, in conjunction with AAPA, held separate freight industry “Influencers Roundtables,” followed each day by a tour of that port.

Titled, “Freight: Keep it Moving,” the two port forums brought together key thought-leaders throughout the transportation industry to explore critical issues facing U.S. seaports and discuss the increasing strain on the nation’s freight transportation infrastructure.

Roundtable participants shared their thoughts on the challenges, priorities and possible solutions for making investments in America’s freight transportation network.

The tours that followed enabled some of the ports’ key marine shipping facilities to help illustrate what had been discussed. Media were invited, as well, and the tours were covered in various news channels, e.g. http://bit.ly/CorpusChristiTOUR, http://bit.ly/PortHoustonTOUR.