Freight Main page

Central Ohio has historically been a crossroads for transportation since the national road, the canals, the early railroads, and the interstate system. Central Ohio is strategically located within a one day truck drive/one hour flight of 51 percent of the United States population and 53 percent of its manufacturing. Central Ohio’s location led to our early development as a logistical center. Today, our location is just as critical, but when coupled with our efforts as a community, our success keeps growing.

MORPC's goal is to engage leaders in the central Ohio region in a public/private partnership for our economy and for the mobility of freight and goods. This is done in order to advance the region’s freight movement in a reliable, multimodal and intermodal, efficient, cost-effective, safe, and environmentally responsible manner, in order to maintain central Ohio as an international freight center

Federal transportation guidelines contain specific provisions to incorporate goods movement and economic development (or, more simply, freight) considerations in the MPO planning process. Through its long-range transportation planning, TIP development, and the conduct of technical studies (e.g., Greater Columbus Inland Port Studies, Central Ohio Regional Rail Study, Case-Study in ODOT’s Freight Impact’s on Ohio’s Roadway System Study, Central Ohio Freight Fact Book, Freight Trend Study etc.), MORPC has proactively sought to fulfill the federal requirement to include freight as a planning factor.

2011 Freight Factbook – DRAFT

The 2011 MORPC Freight Fact Book presents an overview of the freight industry in central Ohio and our critical role in the global supply chain. The MORPC Freight Fact Book has received updates throughout the past decade to respond to the changing needs of our readers. This latest update focuses on the increasingly important role central Ohio has taken in the global supply chain. In particular, freight movements have become increasingly complicated. Shifts in the global supply chain due to the increased use of intermodal containers have severely increased central Ohio’s importance in the freight industry.

The 2011 MORPC Freight Fact Book has been designed to be used in two ways. First, this update will continue to serve as our traditional fact book. The fact book’s original purpose was to educate and inform our various constituents on the importance of freight to our region. However, how the fact book is designed and delivered has changed over the past years. With this update, we have created the framework to create a living document. As you peruse the 2011 Fact Book, you will notice a common theme in topic-related fact sheets. These easily updated fact sheets were designed to be used as information tools, which MORPC and its partners could use to create a common voice. We believe this design will allow project sheets to be easily updated, and as our region’s needs change fact sheets can be added or removed. The fact book will be primarily distributed using MORPC’s Freight website. This method of distribution will allow users to access the latest and greatest version of the Fact Book, or any particular fact sheet of interest.

Any thoughts you have on our updated Factbook are greatly appreciated and can be sent to Dan Haake at dhaake@morpc.org. We are looking to “finalize” the Factbook later this fall.

Introduction

Introduction
MORPC and Freight

Framing the Region

Port of Virginia
Port of New York/New Jersey
Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach
Panama Canal & Expansion
Alameda Corridor

Trucking

Introduction to Trucking in Ohio
Alum Creek Drive/Groveport Road
Rickenbacker Parkway
East/West Connector
US 33/I-270 Interchange Improvements (Dublin)
West Jefferson
Etna Parkway
SR 665/I-71 Interchange Improvements
I-70 Truck Lanes
South Outerbelt

Rail

National Rail Operations Overview
Intermodal Transport
National Gateway/North Baltimore
Buckeye Yard
Heartland Corridor
Rickenbacker Intermodal Facility

Air Cargo

Overview
Port Columbus
Rickenbacker
Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) #138

Glossary

Freight Project Factsheets