NEW YORK CITY-New York is continuing to build big – and dig deeper. In creating room for a new generation of container ships, city officials and representatives from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey unveiled plans for a new $250 million water tunnel between Staten Island and Brooklyn that will serve as a critical element in the region’s Panama Canal expansion.
The project involves digging a new water transmission main called a “siphon” between Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and Tompkinsville on Staten Island that will allow for the removal of two existing tunnels that are currently at a shallower depth. In turn, the work will enable the dredging and deepening of the Anchorage Channel, which will pave the way for post-Panamax ships to access and utilize the New York/New Jersey harbor.
“If you listen carefully, the sounds you hear are the sound of jobs being created,” said Port Authority executive director Pat Foye, showcasing the 110-ton, 300-foot-long tunnel boring machine, which will soon begin drilling 100 feet underground. Over 10 months, the machine will drill a distance of nearly two miles. Once completed, it will provide nearly five million gallons of daily water supply and up to 150 million gallons in emergency situations.
“This critical initiative will help ensure that our port on both sides of the Hudson remains the largest on the East Coast, and continues to drive the local economy and create good paying jobs,” he said.
The harbor deepening project, which is being managed by the Port Authority and the US Army Corps. of Engineers, is expected to be completed in 2014. Both the Port Authority and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection are splitting the project’s cost, with each contributing $125 million toward the work.
The tunnel project comes at a time when future cargo volumes expected to double over the next decade, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said the Anchorage Channel must be deepened in order to accommodate the new generation of larger cargo vessels and better position the region to benefit from the growth in global trade.
“Those ships are actually calling on New York-area ports right now,” Bloomberg said. “They are arriving via Asia from the Suez Canal, but since our harbor isn’t deep enough, they are sailing here with less than their maximum capacity. If we want our region’s maritime terminals to stay competitive, we need to be able to accommodate these new mega-ships.”
The Anchorage Channel, with over 5,000 ships passing through it each year, is one of the most heavily-used shipping channels in the world. In addition, the harbor deepening project is also linked to the Port Authority’s overhaul of the Bayonne Bridge, which involves the raising of the roadbed of the bridge by more than 60 feet above the Kill van Kull between New Jersey and Staten Island.
“It is a complex project, as you might imagine, but by clearing the way for bigger ships, we will in turn, clear the way for more jobs and more economic growth,” Bloomberg said. “It is yet more proof of our strong commitment to modernizing our infrastructure for our growing city, while protecting the elements that are so crucial to our water supply.”
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
