The introduction of these giant vessels has consequences for seaport infrastructure. Not every port
has the capacity to handle these giant ships in terms of navigable port channels and quay wall sizes.
Port infrastructure is characterized by huge investments and large sunk costs, often reflecting
investment decisions in the past and leading to sub-optimal locations in the present. Many ports are
thus spatially and environmentally constrained to accommodate infrastructure upgrading and
expansion as they are often located near dense urban areas. While major port expansions have been
spatially planned away from urban cores (e.g. Rotterdam’s Second Maasvlakte), much of the
offloaded goods still need to be funneled through already congested metropolitan infrastructure
corridors towards distribution centers and final markets in the hinterland. For this reason logistics
activity and distribution are increasingly being developed further inland and away from the
congested ports, in turn making their intermodal connectivity with the ports and the coordination
between various transport intermediaries of upmost importance (Notteboom & Rodrigue, 2005; Van
der Horst & De Langen, 2008).