Larrabee to retire from Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Port director’s tenure has seen projects to deepen harbor, raise Bayonne Bridge, expand marine terminals and intermodal rail.    Richard M. Larrabee, director of the Port Commerce Department at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said he will retire later this year when a replacement is found.
   “I do not expect to leave in the next few months. I will leave when my replacement is named and in place,” he told American Shipper. “In the meantime, I remain hard at work and still enjoying it.”
   Larrabee has had a busy 15-year tenure at the bi-state agency, which is landlord to the third largest container port in the nation after Los Angeles and Long Beach. Prior to joining the port, he was a rear admiral and commander of the First Coast Guard District.
   Under Larrabee’s leadership the port has completed a project to dredge its main shipping channels to 50 feet and begun a project to raise the Bayonne Bridge, both initiatives having the goal of making it possible for container terminals to accommodate larger ships expected to call next year after the Panama Canal expansion is completed.
   He has also overseen major expansions of container terminals, such as Port Newark Container Terminal and Global Terminal in Jersey City/Bayonne, as well as expansions of the port’s ExpressRail intermodal rail terminals and roadway improvements around the port complex at Port Newark and Port Elizabeth.
   In late 2013, the port authority convened a Port Performance Task Force that Larrabee co-chaired with the president of the New York Shipping Association that spent months seeking input from members of the shipping industry on how to improve operations on the port.
   A report with 23 recommendations was released this summer and a group, called the Port Performance Task Force, is now seeking to implement those ideas.