the past two years should. They'll find 

 new and improved services, expanded 

 facilities and a strong desire to be the 

 best-run ports on the east coast." 



This year the Wilmington port 

 added 26 acres of paved open storage 

 to its facilities at a cost of $1,135,000, 

 while at Morehead City $447,000 in 

 capital improvements were made. The 

 General Assembly allotted $7.5 

 million, the largest state appropriation 

 ever, to the SPA this year to operate 

 the ports. 



Stover says SPA plans are to develop 

 Wilmington into the state's container 

 port. This year 23,000 to 24,000 con- 

 tainers crossed the docks at Wilming- 

 ton, and by 1985 the SPA expects 200,- 

 000 containers to be moved. This will 

 call for an additional three to four con- 

 tainer cranes. 



Morehead City, on the other hand, is 

 seen more as a bulk port, exporting 

 goods like tobacco and lumber. It is the 

 largest tobacco exporting port on the 

 east coast, Stover says. But, he adds, 

 this has made the port's revenues 

 dependent on a fluctuating tobacco 

 harvest. 



The Morehead City port is now 

 becoming one of the east coast's 

 leading exporters of lumber, and this, 

 the SPA hopes, will provide the port a 

 more steady income. 



Stover says another container crane 

 also may be in the Morehead City 

 port's future if the port can attract 

 enough container business. Lack of 

 container business was the reason 

 behind the SPA's decision to move the 

 port's first container crane to Wil- 

 mington. 



The move spurred a major con- 

 troversy and added to the long-time 

 rivalry between the two ports. Some 

 Morehead City residents say the SPA's 

 decision was yet another example of 

 the state's favoritism toward Wil- 

 mington. 



But others say it was the state's 

 desire to treat the ports equally that 

 initially led to the problem. When 

 Wilmington needed a container crane 

 in the mid 1970s, one was also placed 

 at Morehead City. However, the 

 Morehead City port had not developed 

 any container business and the crane 

 sat idle most of its 18 month stay, in- 



curring heavy costs which kept the 

 port running at a deficit, Stover says. 



In November 1978, the SPA voted 

 to move the crane to Wilmington. 

 Some Morehead City residents banded 

 together to stop the crane's removal, 

 taking their fight first to the N.C. 

 General Assembly and later to the 

 courts. 



Their efforts failed. In June, 1979, 

 the crane was moved to Wilmington. 

 Defending the SPA decision, Stover 

 says the crane was used more in its first 

 two months at Wilmington that it was 

 ever used at Morehead City. 



"The Morehead faction is insisting 

 that there will be enough business to 

 warrant a crane at the port next year," 

 he says. "But that does not match our 

 figures. Another crane will be put at 

 Morehead City as soon as it becomes 

 detrimental to the port not to have 

 one." 



Meanwhile, SPA officials are hoping 

 the effort to develop the two ports 

 along different lines may still some of 

 the rivalry and put them on the road to 

 becoming major eastern ports. 



Intracoastal waterway provides haven for vessels 



The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway 

 meanders through North Carolina, of- 

 fering commercial and recreational 

 vessels a protected haven from the un- 

 predictable ocean. 



Its path through the state is 308 

 miles long. Most of it winds just behind 

 North Carolina's barrier islands and 

 through the sounds and rivers, but 

 several sections had to be dug through 

 land masses. 



Built in the 1920s and 1930s, the 

 waterway, which extends from Florida 

 to New Jersey, was designed to provide 

 a protected passageway for commerce 

 to move along the east coast. 



The waterway was to be the Atlantic 

 seaboard's answer to the Mississippi 

 River. But it has never reached that 

 potential, says Tom Swain, chief of 

 navigation reports for the Wilmington 

 district of the U.S. Army Corps of 

 Engineers. 



A lack of industrial development 

 along the southeastern coast has 

 limited waterway use, Swain says. 

 "There are big cities, big industries, 

 and a lot of grain movement along the 

 Mississippi River to boost its traffic," 



Photo by Steve Murray- 



he says. 



In 1977, more than 3 million tons of 

 material were transported in North 

 Carolina over the waterway, Swain 

 says. This was more than in South 

 Carolina, Virginia, Georgia or Florida, 

 where there is not as much intra-port 

 transportation, he adds. 



Swain says it is more economical to 

 transport bulk loads of heavy materials 

 by water than by truck or railroad. A 

 ton of materials can be moved along 

 the waterway for a cost of W2 cents a 

 mile, whereas a ton of material moved 

 by rail costs 4V2 cents a mile and by 

 truck, 17 cents a mile. 



The hitch, Swain adds, is that water 

 transportation is slower. "I wouldn't 

 recommend it for someone who needed 

 to have materials immediately," Swain 

 says. 



Don Bennett, traffic and transpor- 

 tation supervisor of distribution for 

 Texasgulf Inc. says, however, that if a 

 company plans to transport enormous 

 quantities of material, the waterway 

 may indeed be faster. 



Continued on next page 



Barge moves along the waterway 



