PORTAGE, Ind. — Ports of Indiana says the only ocean-served container terminal planned for the Chicago market is moving toward a first trial shipment by the end of 2026 at Burns Harbor, part of a $100 million dock, rail, and roadway expansion. Speaking July 8 at Valparaiso University, CEO Jody Peacock told an Innovate Northwest Indiana audience that U.S. Customs and Border Protection approved the project in 2024 and that planners are aiming for a year-end trial as the port’s first-ever export under the new service, the Post-Tribune reported. “We haven’t seen that kind of investment in the port since it opened in 1970,” Peacock said.
Key facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| CBP approval | 2024 for a staffed container cargo examination facility |
| CapEx framing | ~$100 million port expansion (dock/rail/road) |
| 2026 peg | Trial shipment / first-ever export targeted by year-end |
| Throughput claim | About 15 lifts per hour (Ports of Indiana site, via Post-Tribune) |
| Traffic baseline | Avg. 321 barges, 81 ships, 350,000 trucks, 10,000 rail cars a year |
Peacock cast containers as the missing mode for a Region that already moves steel, bulk, and project cargo through the St. Lawrence Seaway. Shipping containers handle about 60% of world ocean trade, he said, and Chicago already handles roughly 16 million TEUs a year as the nation’s largest railroad hub — without an ocean container terminal of its own. “There is no container ocean terminal in Chicago, so Indiana is developing the only ocean-served container terminal in the largest container market in the country,” Peacock said. On transit time: “We think in Europe, for example, it’s a 26-day trip to get a container into this market. We think we can take 10 days off of that.”
That July message builds on earlier steps. In July 2024, Ports of Indiana announced CBP approval for the first international sea cargo container terminal on Lake Michigan and said regular scheduling would wait until Customs facilities were fully operational, potentially in 2026. Peacock and Port Director Ryan McCoy warned then that Great Lakes seasons and smaller vessels limit the trade but argued an all-water route could diversify supply chains. The port must build a CBP office and install radiation portal monitors and security gear to Customs specifications.
In March 2026, the authority opened its first international trade office in Ireland under maritime veteran Brian Dooley and said it had partnership agreements with Port of Cork and Port of Antwerp-Bruges. That release also pegged trial shipments for later in 2026 — aligning with Peacock’s luncheon timeline — and cited Ireland’s $32.4 billion in 2024 shipments to Indiana, most of which did not move through Indiana ports.
Bill Hanna, executive director of the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation and former Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority chief, told the Innovate audience the container push fits a multi-agency habit of lining up state, local, and private partners. “That’s been the winning combination over the last few years,” Hanna said. “We create something that didn’t exist before.”
Post-Tribune coverage cited Ports of Indiana figures putting the Portage/Burns Harbor complex among the nation’s 25 largest ports, with about $4.6 billion in regional economic impact and 28,400 jobs — a different accounting from the $16.6 billion / 25 million-ton figures in the port’s 2024 CBP release. For steel mills, agribusiness, and warehouse operators along I-80/94, the near-term test is whether a 2026 trial turns into scheduled liner calls before the next Seaway season closes.