State official to continue work to promote IM facility

Patrick Donovan, executive director of the West Virginia Public Port Authority, is resigning and taking a position as director of the National Maritime Enhancement Center at Marshall University, one of four centers of its kind in the United States, The Herald-Dispatch reports. He will be an employee of the Marshall University Research Corporation and housed at the Rahall Transportation Institute.

Donovan said he would
still work on intermodal projects and continue to be involved in efforts to
bring an intermodal facility to Prichard, W.Va., as part of the Heartland
Corridor project.

The Heartland Corridor
project is a combined effort of Norfolk Southern railroad and West Virginia, as
well as the states of Virginia and Ohio and the federal government. It involves
the transport of goods in double-stacked containers from the Virginia Coast to
Columbus, cutting transit time for shipments. As part of the project, the
railway and the state would like to build an intermodal facility at Prichard,
which could serve as a place to move containers to and from the trains to the
roadways, as well as the nearby Tri-State Airport and the Big Sandy River,
which connects to the Ohio River.

It’s a project that’s
been in the works for a decade but has yet to come to fruition, and in which
Donovan has been heavily involved. He said he will continue to work on that
project, and, as it stands now, documents have been signed so that the project
can be put out to bid. Site prep construction, as well as building a bridge to
the future site of the facility and building an access road, likely would begin
in the spring, with a total of $15 million from the Port Authority, the Federal
Highways Administration and the Division of Highways.

Road construction along
U.S. 52 that is going on concurrently will provide some extra fill dirt needed
for the intermodal facility site, which will save a good deal of state money,
Donovan said last week, when the Heartland Corridor’s opening was celebrated in
Prichard.

"The Prichard intermodal
facility is well on its way to being done and (Donovan’s change in position),
at no point, will hinder that," Plymale said.

About his new line of
work, he said he’s excited that he can extend his efforts beyond state lines
now, and about the unique, regional role that the Maritime Enhancement Center
plays being one of only four centers of its kind in the country. The center
focuses on navigation issues related to economic development, Donovan said.
Among its aims is to keep the environmental quality of the river in balance
with industry standards, he said.

With its position on the
Ohio River, Huntington is the nation’s largest inland port, and its eighth
largest port overall. He said the position, which has been vacant, has been expanded
to include intermodal capabilities, as well as maritime issues such as waterway
navigation.