Tristan Roussou
Junior Consultant
Read time
4 min read
Date
6/23/2025
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In a highly competitive market, such as the international container shipping business, assuring your customers that you can guarantee on-time pick-ups and drop-offs requires strict and consistent time scheduling. Container terminals need to provide sufficient options for customers to receive or deliver their goods to be a reliable partner and thus an attractive hub to do their business. To create these opportunities, container terminals must operate efficiently and should be well connected to the hinterland, as this is where most of their customers are located. There are many factors influencing the level of integrated connectivity of container terminals, with some of the most important being: geographic location, size of the hinterland and distance to the hinterland, multimodal infrastructure availability, competition from other ports in the region and government & policy support. The design of port-adjacent infrastructure will follow from these factors, and the port-adjacent infrastructure in turn changes the factors.
A terminal’s location, and by extension its design and adjacent infrastructure, depends largely on the volume of ship-to-ship container transshipment. Will containers go to the hinterland, or be reloaded onto ships bound for distant destinations? Ports like Tanger and Port Said focus mainly on transshipment, exerting relatively low pressure on adjacent infrastructure. In contrast, Genoa, Valencia, and Rotterdam serve large hinterlands as main transport hubs, creating significant pressure on surrounding infrastructure.
Port-adjacent infrastructure relies on three main transport modes: road traffic, rail, and barges. Each has advantages and challenges. Road traffic—mainly trucks—is dominant in nearly every port. Barges and railways offer higher container capacity and economies of scale, needing specialized infrastructure like rail lines and waterways. They also have the smallest ecological footprint in emissions. Trucks share infrastructure with all road users, causing congestion. Trucks account for 50–90% of the modal split in most ports, making them the leading cause of congestion near port infrastructure. Their ecological footprint is the largest and worsens with traffic jams.
Ports on estuaries like Rotterdam have the opportunity to maximize their modal split to relieve road congestion—currently around 60% trucks, 30% barges, and 10% rail. Coastal terminals like Genoa and Valencia lack barge facilities due to geography. Genoa’s modal split is roughly 70% trucks and 30% rail, while Valencia’s is about 95% trucks and 5% rail. Both have faced growth limits due to congestion and have worked to improve modal splits. Genoa’s reliance on trucks was especially problematic after the 2018 Morandi bridge collapse, which caused a bottleneck in an already congested network.
As a result of traffic jams and resulting delays, customers could choose to relocate to nearby (smaller) terminals that will meet their demands. That is why it is in the ports' and customers' own interest to push for a strong modal split to relieve port-adjacent infrastructure. The port of Rotterdam is aiming towards a 40% truck / 40% barges / 20% train split. This will also positively impact the ecological footprint. It is also looking towards creative solutions to solve congestion problems. To relieve public road traffic, the special Container Exchange Route (CER) has been built for internal traffic between terminals.
Greenfield terminals, built on undeveloped land, enable efficient connections to the three main transport modes. Port authorities and local governments often lead these projects, allowing fully integrated infrastructure solutions. Transport engineers need early input from terminal operators about expected throughput, as terminal capacity depends on surrounding infrastructure, possibly creating a positive feedback loop to optimize the network. The Maasvlakte I & II developments in Rotterdam exemplify this approach.
But not every terminal has the luxury of being developed in a specially reclaimed deep-sea port like the Maasvlakte I & II. Expanding existing terminals, whether within their current area or by acquiring land, inevitably increases traffic. The real challenge lies in expanding existing terminals and their infrastructure that were not originally designed for growth. These terminals often share their infrastructure with other port activities, making capacity management complex. Ports must therefore anticipate and adapt to growth by carefully coordinating infrastructure development based on the size of the expansion and the presence of other nearby port operations.
The A15 motorway, a busy freight corridor through Rotterdam, frequently suffers from heavy congestion. A prime example of a mitigating measure on port-adjacent infrastructure is the new Blankenburg connection (A24) tunnel, which was opened to ease future traffic pressure from port growth, including the increasing containerization and the energy transition. Meanwhile, terminals can mitigate congestion by buffering strategies like large truck holding areas to absorb traffic peaks when infrastructure is strained.
Effective expansion thus requires close cooperation between port authorities, government bodies, transport operators, and infrastructure managers to ensure coordinated planning and timely upgrades. Without such alignment, ports risk infrastructure bottlenecks that disrupt terminal operations and regional logistics.
Efficient container terminals rely onwell-coordinated port-adjacent infrastructure to manage growing freight volumes. Multimodal transport—balancing road, rail, and barge traffic—is key to reducing congestion and environmental impact. Expanding existing terminals poses challenges due to shared infrastructure and increased traffic, making strategic planning and collaboration between port authorities, governments, and operators essential. Without proactive adaptation, infrastructure bottlenecks risk delaying shipments and driving customers to competitors. Facilitating these futureproof connections is vital for container terminals and port authorities for maintaining terminal efficiency and supply chain reliability.
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