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Under the constraints of limited spaces and imbalanced traffic volumes (for both in and out directions) of container gates, reversible lane layouts become an economical and practical way to improve the service level of container terminal systems and make the maximum use of the current terminal resources. Together with a consideration of minimized total costs (both construction and operating) of terminal gate system, this paper first developed an optimization model to decide the number and scheduling rules of the reversible lanes at a terminal gate. A metaheuristic algorithm was built to solve the optimal model. Meanwhile, to reflect the randomness and dynamics property of the terminal gate system in practice, parameters that cannot be calculated from conventional analytic methods are obtained through a simulation model. Finally, a hub container terminal in the northeast of China was employed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method and provide a theoretical foundation for the construction and management of terminal gate systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]