Yesterday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s (PANYNJ) board authorized an additional $66 million in funding for a freight-rail program and approved remaining projects that will boost the ports’ rail capacity to 1.3 million containers annually. The authority now will spend about $530 million on the program.
PANYNJ will use the additional proceeds to fund final design and construction of ExpressRail Port Newark — which will handle about 250,000 containers annually — and ExpressRail Corbin Street. The projects call for building 30,000 linear feet of support track for ExpressRail Port Newark, two loading tracks, a truck ramp over Corbin Street and an administration building.
In addition, the authority will construct a Corbin Street rail support facility, which will provide capacity to stage and unload two-mile-long trains, and integrate traffic from the three on-dock ExpressRail facilities. The project includes about 26,000 linear feet of support track for ExpressRail facilities at the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island, the Elizabeth-Port Authority Marine Terminal and Port Newark.
Scheduled to be completed by 2011, the projects will complement previously authorized work for on-dock rail terminals at Howland Hook, Port Newark and the Elizabeth Port terminal. In 2004, PANYNJ completed an eight-track rail facility at the Elizabeth Port terminal. The authority currently is building an additional 10 tracks at the terminal and completing ExpressRail Staten Island, which is scheduled to open by year’s end.
“It’s a priority for us to handle greater volumes of cargo by rail instead of by truck to allow the port to remain strong and vibrant,” said PANYNJ Executive Director Kenneth Ringler Jr. in a prepared statement.
Source: Progressive Railroading Daily News
