DOT Secretary Lahood Presents $11.4 Million To Help Fund Intermodal Rail Yard

June 25, 2012
The former Greenville rail yard in Bayonne, NJ, being developed adjacent to the Global Container Terminal expansion project, will benefit from a U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER grant of $11.4 million to be used for rebuilding and modernizing the facility

The former Greenville rail yard in Bayonne, NJ, being developed adjacent to the Global Container Terminal expansion project, will benefit from a U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER grant of $11.4 million to be used for rebuilding and modernizing the facility.

The check was presented by USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood and U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, D-NJ, as they stood on the Global facility and looked toward the historic rail yard, which will become SHIF. Also attending was U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, U.S. Representative Albio Sires and Bayonne Mayor Mark Smith.

The enhancement of the rail facility will be a significant offering to customers of the expanded Global facility, scheduled to open in 2014. The terminal will feature new container handling technology that will achieve higher efficiency while improving safety and security for the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), AFL-CIO workforce. The technologically advanced marine terminal will also improve the competitiveness of the Port of New York and New Jersey with its ability to handle the largest container vessels at greater throughput density per acre.

The intermodal facility when completed will allow an additional 250,000 containers annually to be moved to and from ocean-going vessels and double-stack freight trains traveling longer distances between the port and the heartland. The South Hudson Intermodal Facility will enhance the Port of New York & New Jersey's three existing rail facilities while promoting future growth of intermodal cargo through the City of Bayonne while reducing the amount of over the road trucks congesting both the Hudson County and regional roadway network.

Reduced use of trucks will also reduce pollution to communities where people live and work. TIGER funds will be used to procure two double-cantilever rail mounted gantry cranes, which will load and unload double-stack rail cars in the 32-car rail car working intermodal yard.

"The DOT TIGER funds places us a giant step closer to the total Global expansion, the total development of Port Jersey peninsula and a superb example of how public and private funding can work together to help such projects evolve," said James Devine, President and CEO, Global Container Terminals USA. "It is also a testament to the long-term commitment from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to protect the port's continuing role as a leading U.S. gateway for global commerce," he added.

Global Terminal sits on a small footprint in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty in a region that accounted for significant industrial growth in the 20th century. The terminal development project is expected to create construction-related jobs over the next three years. It will generate new high-technology longshoremen positions and contribute significantly to the more than $6.4 billion in additional personal and business income the port is expected to generate from capital investments through 2017. The SHIF terminal development project is expected to create 250 construction-related jobs. One third of the total investment is funded publicly while the remaining two-thirds are sourced privately.

The SHIF will ultimately create 50 new permanent well-paying, advanced longshoremen positions annually and the Port Jersey Expansion will support 7,475 jobs annually by contributing $12.8 billion in additional wage earnings and $22.9B in business income through the port operations, maintenance, trucking, warehousing and distribution.

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