GLOBAL Container Terminal at the Port of New York and New Jersey is starting construction at its Bayonne facility of a US$149 million near-dock intermodal container transfer facility that is expected to handle 250,000 lifts per year.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is paying one-third of the cost of the Bayonne rail link, has spent $600 million bringing ExpressRail, as the rail connections are known, to different parts of the port, reported IHS Media.
The ExpressRail project in GCT's Bayonne terminal includes the construction of 10,000 feet of working track, 32,000 feet of support track, and switches and infrastructure to support rail-mounted gantry cranes. GCT USA will complete the final design and build the new facility, and the port authority will reimburse GCT up to $56 million to cover construction costs.
The port's rail business has been relatively strong this year and the port authority hopes that the arrival of ever-larger ships, making fewer stops elsewhere on the US east coast, will bring more discretionary cargo headed for the Midwest by rail.
The port completed 454,465 rail lifts in the first 10 months of the year, a 3.1 per cent increase over the same period in 2015. At present, 40 per cent of the port's rail capacity ?or 520,000 containers in 2015 ?is used. However, by 2020, the port expects to be doing 850,000 lifts per year, more than 55 per cent of the available capacity.