GCT, Port Authority of NY/NJ break ground on new intermodal terminal

The ExpressRail Port Jersey facility will be located adjacent to the recently expanded GCT Bayonne container terminal and is scheduled for completion in mid-2018.    GCT USA and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey held a groundbreaking ceremony for the ExpressRail Port Jersey facility on Monday.
   The so-called “Greenville Yard,” scheduled for completion in mid-2018, will be a ship-to-rail intermodal container transfer facility (ICTF) located adjacent to the recently expanded GCT Bayonne container terminal, GCT and the port authority said in a joint press release.
   The facility will:
     • Connect the Port of New York and New Jersey’s GCT Bayonne terminal to CSX and Norfolk Southern’s rail network, reaching key inland markets;
     • Be equipped with 9,600 feet of track, serviced by high-efficiency, electric cantilevered rail mounted gantry cranes featuring LED lighting;
     • And have a capacity to lift 250,000 import and export containers annually.
   The facility, which is designed to complement GCT Bayonne’s ability to handle large containerships and offer quick transaction times, is expected to eventually eliminate 375,000 truck trips from local highways each year because each container lifted to a rail car displaces the need for 1.5 truck trips.
   Approximately $149 million was allocated to the ICTF, and $56 million was collected by the port authority through its cargo facility charge, which will be used to reimburse Global for the construction of the ICTF within the contours of the intermodal yard fence line.
   The ICTF project is a part of a broader Greenville Yard port authority authorization, which totals $356 million and will be primarily funded by the port authority. Approximately $80 million will come from federal earmarks and grants.
   In addition to the ICTF, the Greenville Yard project includes off site rail improvements, the construction of lead tracks, other Conrail improvements, and upgrades to the New York New Jersey Rail system, a barge system that moves rail cars across New York Harbor, between the Greenville Yard and the 65th Street Yard in Brooklyn, N.Y.
   Over 18 years, ICTF is expected to eliminate 415 tons of nitrogen oxide and 108 tons of particulate matter. It also will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 18,300 tons each year if the yard operates at capacity.
   The port authority already has three “ExpressRail” terminals, which are adjacent to container terminals in Elizabeth and Newark, N.J.; and adjacent to the GCT New York terminal on Staten Island.
   The three existing yards have capacity to perform 1.25 million lifts. In the first 10 months of the year, they handled 454,465 lifts and that number is expected to exceed 500,000 by the end of the year.
   GCT Bayonne will operate the rail yard, with Conrail providing switching. Containers will be transported between GCT Bayonne and the railyard using cassettes and terminal tractors.