The Port of Albany hopes to stimulate container traffic with barge service that would bring containers north from New York City and easy access that would get trucks in and out of the port within 45 minutes, port General Manager Richard Hendrick said Thursday.
Hendrick made the comments during the port’s second annual Industry Day, which showcased the port’s activities and tenants and included presentations on everything from freight movements in the Capital Region to improvements to a bridge in Bayonne, N.J., that would increase clearances for larger ships at the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Container and other traffic from Asia is expected to grow following improvements to the Panama Canal that will permit larger ships to use the connector. Ports up and down the East Coast are expecting more business as shippers avoid traffic-clogged ports in southern California and elsewhere. There, trucks and ships can be delayed for days.
Hendrick has also been talking with the Port of Oswego on Lake Ontario about moving containers overland from the Port of Albany to Oswego, where they then could be shipped anywhere on the Great Lakes.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo included $15 million in this year’s state budget for port improvements, which will cover the costs of replacing the final remaining section of wood timber-supported wharf on the west side of the Hudson River with a concrete and steel structure that can support the weight of containers and cranes. About 840 feet of wharf will be rebuilt, running from the area of Shed 5 to the Cargill grain elevators. Work could start as soon as late summer and be completed by the autumn of 2016, Hendrick said.
