Boro Board Wary Of Harbor Project Traffic Impact
by linda j. wilson

An update to the proposed Cross Harbor Freight Movement Project brought the same objections from the Queens borough board that a similar presentation did last October. Of most concern to Borough President Helen Marshall and several members of the Queens delegation to the City Council was the strong possibility of increased truck traffic on Queens streets. "If we can’t reduce truck traffic, what’s the point?" Marshall asked. "This project needs more study before we can think of approving it."

The Cross Harbor Freight Movement Project, for which a major investment study was conducted in 1998, was conceived as a means to correct the freight transportation imbalance which currently exists in New York City. At present, Alice Cheng, New York City Economic Development Corporation vice president, explained, more than 30,000 tractor-trailer trucks cross the Hudson River and New York Harbor every day. Since New York City has no direct connection to the rail network that serves the rest of the country, freight that comes in by rail must be off-loaded onto these tractor trailers, which use local roads and bridges to deliver freight in the five boroughs. By 2020, highway congestion is expected to increase by 50 percent, while freight volumes are expected to increase 70 percent.

In addition to the lack of direct rail routes from the west-of-Hudson region, other challenges to rail freight development in New York City are an antiquated rail structure that lacks adequate clearance for the double-height trailers which comprise today’s freight shipments, competition for track time with the nation’s busiest commuter railroads, Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road, and limited funding for rail freight projects. However, the market exists for rail freight in New York City: in 1997 the Long Island Rail Road privatized its rail freight operations. The New York & Atlantic Railroad, which took over LIRR freight business, has seen double-digit increases in traffic loads. New York & Atlantic currently hauls 15,000 carloads of freight to more than 80 customers every year.

Advantages to the Cross Harbor Project, which would involve construction of a rail freight tunnel under New York Harbor from the Greenville Yard in Jersey City to Brooklyn, clearance improvements along the Bay Ridge and Montauk branches of the LIRR, construction of a new intermodal freight yard in Maspeth include needed redundancy for trans-Hudson freight transportation security, reduced tractor-trailer trips or Hudson River crossings, reduction of regional emissions and job creation. The number of trips reduced, amount of regional emissions and number of jobs created are contingent upon whether a single or double tunnel system is constructed. Trans-Hudson trips would be reduced by 500,000 annually if a single tunnel is constructed and by approximately 1 million with a double tunnel. Regional emissions would be reduced by more than 60,000 tons annually with a single tunnel system, by more than 100,000 tons with a double tunnel system. A single tunnel system would create nearly 17,000 new jobs across the region; a double tunnel system would create almost 30,000 new jobs. Cheng and Daniel Baer of the EDC stressed that these jobs would be permanent, rather than involved in only construction of the tunnel system.

The board learned that despite the advantages of the Cross Harbor Project, under a single tunnel system, as many as 29 businesses in the vicinity of the train yard to be developed on existing rail facilities in West Maspeth and as many as 1,400 employees would be displaced. If a double tunnel system is constructed, as many as 52 businesses with as many as 2,500 employees could be displaced. Cheng and Baer stressed that every effort would be made to relocate the businesses, primarily wholesale trade, warehousing, motor freight transportation and business services, in the same area, easily accomplished, they felt, because 11 million square feet of space is currently available. Also, any affected businesses would be subject to the federal Uniform Relocation Act, which would make them eligible for compensation at fair market value and provide reasonable moving and other relocation expenses.

The environmental issues attendant upon the West Maspeth Yard are the air quality and noise issues associated with truck traffic and increased rail activity, Cheng and Baer conceded. Potential solutions are using environmentally friendly intermodal equipment, designing appropriate mitigation for rail activities and identifying options to divert truck traffic from neighborhoods. Those options include direct truck connections from the rail yard to nearby highways, additional truck controls and signage in the neighborhoods that border the yard and coordinating solutions to the traffic problem with the ongoing project rehabilitating the Kosciuszko Bridge.