FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

In Bayonne, A Bridge Too Low

(A barrier looms between local ports and huge cargo ships of the future)

Article Taken From Star-Ledger: April 27, 2008 By Joe Malinconico

Researched By: Eric Townes

For the region's thriving seaport, the clock started last September when $5.3 billion expansion of the Panama Canal got under way. Industry experts say the expansion will transform international trade to America's East Coast seaports by allowing massive new container ships to haul cargo from China through the canal. But there's one problem for the shipping terminals in Newark and Elizabeth: the Bayonne Bridge, which spans the entrance to the port's largest terminals. It is too low for the huge ships to sail under. And several port business leaders say there is little chance the obstacle will be resolved by 2014, when the canal project is supposed to be completed.

"There's no way we can beat the clock," said Jim Devine, president of a company that runs New York Container Terminal on Staten Island and Global Marine Terminal in Hudson County. At stake are tens of thousands of port jobs, the price of goods in this region and the possibility the even more trucks will be hauling cargo on New Jersey's roads.

Experts disagree on what happens if the bridge remains in the way after the canal is done. Some warn that the Port of New York and New Jersey will lose significant business to terminals in Norfolk, Va.; Charleston, S.C.; and Savannah, Ga. Others say the New York region is too vital to be bypassed, and they predict importers will continue to use smaller ships to get to the terminals here. Last month, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the Bayonne Bridge, voted to spend $300,000 to study the span's impact on the seaport. That research is supposed to be done by next spring. And then officials say they will start deciding what to do -- if anything.

(Bayonne Bridge)

A preliminary Port Authority report done two years ago said it could cost as much as $1 billion and take as long as 15 years to raise the bridge, build a new one or replace it with a tunnel. But, at present, the Port Authority doesn't have money set aside in its 10-year capital budget for the project. The 77-year old bridge, which Martians destroyed in the 2005 Tom Cruise version of "War of the Worlds," connects Bayonne to Staten Island. It handled about 23,000 vehicles a day in 2006, making it the least used of the Port Authority's six crossings. It generated about $115,000 a day in tolls.

A PROBLEM ALREADY

In some ways, the bridge already is an obstacle for ships coming into the seaport. At high tide, the bottom of the span is about 151 feet above the channel known as the Kill Van Kull, the primary passageway to the region's largest shipping terminals.  That's enough room for most ships carrying 4,000 to 5,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units, the measurement that shippers use to equate the various-sized cargo containers). But there are many close calls. A few weeks ago, for example, a ship carrying 5,000 TEUs made it under the bridge by a meter and a half. Often, large container ships have to wait for tides to change to get under the bridge. Some have foldable masts or radar antennas that allow them to squeeze under the span.

There are already more than 100 container ships sailing around the globe that can handle more than 8,000 TEUs, according to industry reports, making them too big to get to the terminals in Newark and Elizabeth. Within the industry, they are known as post-Panamax ships -- ships that are too large to pass through the canal until it is expanded.

To many Bayonne residents, the bridge is an icon, and municipal officials assert they want some say in what the Port Authority does with it. In effect, they have issued ransom terms to the Port Authority -- They'll cooperate on the Bayonne Bridge project if the agency helps rebuild the city's traffic-clogged interchange on the New Jersey Turnpike and widen Route 440. Port executives point out that nothing will happen overnight, regardless of which option is chosen. There could be years of engineering studies, environmental applications and public hearings before any work begins.