NY/NJ Port Authority improves roads around Elizabeth terminals

   The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it has completed a major roadway improvement project in the area around its major container terminals in Elizabeth, N.J.
   The $27 million road-widening project “will reduce truck emissions, allow the port to accommodate future cargo growth, and provide safer roadways for port drivers” by upgrading North Avenue East and McLester Street, two major, heavily traveled roads in the Elizabeth Port Authority Marine Terminal.
   The McLester Street project is part of a $101 million ongoing effort to upgrade the port road network, and the Port Authority anticipates spending an additional $264 million over the next 10 years at its New York and New Jersey port facilities.
   Aside from McLester Street, in Port Newark, the Port Authority has invested more than $13.5 million to realign Corbin Street and upgrade the intersections of Corbin and Tyler streets. It has also constructed a $26 million fly-over ramp over Corbin Street to reduce intra-port truck traffic. Reduced congestion resulting from the McLester Street and Corbin Street roadway upgrades is projected to result in 60-percent reductions in pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions associated with congestion related truck idling. The Corbin Street fly-over will achieve 25-percent reductions in idling emissions resulting from reduced congestion and corresponding reduced delay times during morning and midday peak periods due to the elimination of yard tractors that will now use the flyover instead of port roads.