WNC Inland Port Feasibility Study
The purpose of this project is to produce a feasibility study for locating an inland port in
Western North Carolina.
The confluence of a number of transportation challenges in the face of increasing
globalization of the marketplace and outsourcing has led to a crisis that is expected to
continue growing at a tremendous rate. At the heart of the crisis are increasing demands
coupled with capacity constraints in the transportation system. The constraints arise from
a number of sources within the transportation network, including resource limitations that
hinder shipping capacity and deterioration of transportation assets, including the
infrastructure, moving stock and human resources available to address the growing
demand. In the face of these challenges, numerous solutions have been proposed,
prominent among which have been inland ports. From a regional perspective, the
Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has adopted a strategy that seeks to utilize a
network of inland ports to connect this inland region to international markets by
expediting transportation to and through deep seaports. This RFP addresses this strategy
by seeking to determine the feasibility of an inland port as a part of the ARC proposed
network located within and serving the needs of Western North Carolina.
The main objectives of this process are to:
identify regional stakeholders and their needs;
specify characteristics the proposed inland port should posses and how it should
be coordinated with the surrounding infrastructure and resources in order to meet
the identified needs;
determine if the proposed port is operationally and economically feasible and
represents a viable investment for regional interests, and, if proven feasible, then;
determine how to implement the necessary characteristics, the specific structural
and operational elements, and the appropriate location(s).
