A US$300 million investment in the Port of Philadelphia is expected to more than double container capacity from 400,000 TEU to 900,000 TEU, rising to 1.2 million TEU a year in the future, reports the American Journal of Transportation. 

This initiative will start next year and continue through 2020, said Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Tom Wolf in making the announcement.

"This capital investment programme will give the Port of Philadelphia the tools it needs to improve its competitive position," said Governor Wolf. 

"With its major economic impact throughout the state, my administration understands the value of Pennsylvania's port asset in Philadelphia," he said.

The programme, ranking among the biggest investments by a state on the east coast, will boost three of the busiest sectors of the Port of Philadelphia, including the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, the Port's automobile-handling operation, and the Tioga Marine Terminal.

Said fellow Democrat Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney: "I thank Governor Wolf for this significant investment, and I look forward to working with him and the PRPA [Philadelphia Regional Port Authority] to see that this financial support leads to thousands of family sustaining jobs."

These improvements will also provide increased breakbulk capacity and a substantial increase in automobile-handling.

About $200 million of the Capital Investment Programme will be invested in the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, the Port of Philadelphia's largest maritime facility. 

These improvements will include four new electric postpanamax cranes, the relocation of warehouses to facilitate container growth and the construction of new ones, and a deeper 45-foot depth alongside to match the new 45-foot draft of the Delaware's navigation channel. 

Electrification throughout the terminal will also be modernised to support electric cranes and cold ironing.

Under the public-private partnership, Astro Holdings Inc, the tenant of the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, will purchase one of the postpanamax container cranes.

The improvements at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, the Port's primary container facility, will occur at about the time of the completion of the Delaware Main Channel Deepening Project, the dredging of the main channel from 40 to 45 feet. 

Deeper-draft vessels are expected because of the recently expanded Panama Canal.