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The Port Authority of New York/New Jersey has decided that some expansion of rail freight between the two states is necessary, and recommends either digging a rail tunnel under New York Harbor or expanding the current system of carrying rail cars across it on barges.
The agency rejected an option to do nothing, and recommended more studies on the barge system and the no-frills rail tunnel under the harbor, which are the two least expensive choices of the 10 alternatives discussed at public hearings on Long Island and elsewhere in the metropolitan area earlier this year.
The next step is another series of public hearings, next year at the earliest, on those two options -- meaning no near-term increase in rail freight that
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might take heavy trucks off Long Island roads.
"We will take these two options and really put them through the wringer in terms of in-depth, on-the-ground environmental analysis -- taking traffic counts, testing air quality," said Mark D. Hoffer, director of new port initiatives for the agency, in an interview Wednesday.
Expanding the barge system would cost between $100 million and $600 million, according to agency documents, while the least expensive tunnel would cost more than $7 billion. The tunnel being considered would have two tracks and would be big enough to handle double-stacked cargo containers.
For more of the Newsday story: www.newsday.com
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