AirTrain services connecting the Newark airport with regional rail transit opened in late and another service between JFK and rail accesses to Manhattan opened in JFK has also undertaken a massive upgrade of its terminals , some were torn down and rebuilt as new facilities. In , one of its main runways has been enlarged to accommodate larger airplanes and to improve its durability concrete instead of asphalt. The ongoing information technology upgrade of the American airspace, dubbed Nextgen, is particularly important for New York because the three airports are impairing their respective approach and take-off vectors because of their proximity.
This involves the redesign of the terminal facilities into a single continuous terminal with improved runways and taxiing areas. It is expected that by , the new airport will be fully operational. The port authority thus has a typical landlord business model, leaving terminal operations to private companies. An ongoing priority is improving the efficiency of the port hinterland and regional distribution.
The terminals generate a large number of daily truck flows, often exacerbating local and regional congestion, despite the main terminals Port Newark and Port Elizabeth being located next to one of the widest highway in North America 12 lanes for the adjacent segment.
In the s, the port authority tried developing a Port Inland Distribution Network with the setting inland container distribution centers, namely through barge and rail services. The strategy was partially effective as barge services were mostly abandoned. The port authority has invested in recent years in on-dock rail facilities to favor the usage of rail to service the hinterland, a strategy that turned out to be effective.
A significant problem related to the future growth of the port concerns its capability to accommodate larger containerships, particularly the post-Panamax class that requires at least 45 feet. In , the dredging of a 50 feet channel servicing the main container terminals was completed. By , the clearance of the major navigation channels of the port to a depth of 50 feet was completed.
Yet, the clearance of about feet permitted by the Bayonne Bridge built in over the Kill Van Kull channel linking the harbor to the major container terminal facilities of Port Newark and Port Elizabeth was not sufficient. In , a project to raise the bridge to a clearance of feet was put underway, which was completed in All of the above conferred New York the status of a post-Panamax port able to accommodate ships of 14, TEU and above.
The non-terminal assets of the port authority are substantial, starting with bridges and tunnels. Together they carry more than million vehicular crossings each year, and the George Washington Bridge is the most heavily used in the world, with about , crossings a day. To improve regional vehicle circulation efficiency, the PANYNJ has implemented since , in collaboration with several State and transportation authorities, an electronic toll system E-Zpass.
Many tolls have been upgraded to electronic operations only, implying that vehicles not having an electronic tag have their license plates scanned, and the toll billed to the address of the registered vehicle. The Port Authority Bus Terminal handles over 2. On a typical weekday, approximately 8, buses and , people use the bus terminal.
Because the George Washington Bridge Bus Station is more oriented towards longer-distance commuting, its traffic figures are lower. Even so, it handled 6. This building is the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and opened in on the site of the World Trade Center destroyed during the September 11, , terrorist attacks.
The PANYNJ is also involved in two waterfront development projects contributing to reducing inner-urban problems by converting centrally located maritime terminals to mixed urban land use. Doing so, it provided New York with an extensive array of terminals handling freight and passengers. Diannae Ehler has worked for the Port Authority for 38 years, starting as an intern and working in a number of Port Authority departments over the years. Her first introduction to the bus terminal came in when the general manager position opened up.
Its construction prevailed against the wishes of the powerful city planner Robert Moses, who rarely lost fights. The crisscrossing steel trusses give it a rugged, industrial-looking exterior that screams practical and minimalist — not so much architectural art.
The popularity of bus commuting over the Hudson River has steadily risen over the last seven decades, with some , people a day coming through the terminal pre-pandemic. The exclusive bus lane that connects New Jersey's highways to the Lincoln Tunnel and into the terminal was meant to handle buses during the morning rush hour.
It now feeds almost three times that many buses into a terminal that is unable to handle that volume. Despite some improvements in recent years, the slightest friction — a bus breaking down or one idling too long in the garage — causes a cascading effect of delays.
Bus delays then cause crowding in the terminal, with commuter queues snaked around the building and down stairwells. Loretta Weinberg, the Senate majority leader, who is retiring at the end of this year , has held a number of commuter forums.
After listening to horror stories of constituent complaints about the commuter bus experience — from basic cleanliness to parents having to pay late fees to their child's day care provider because buses were so late — Weinberg became the loudest advocate for a new terminal.
She frequented Port Authority board meetings for years to push the issue. Eventually they started listening, and studies for a new terminal commenced in Reports, studies and brainstorms plodded along for the last seven years until January, when the Port Authority unveiled its preliminary design.
Completed construction of that plan could be a decade away, at a cost that has not yet been made public. The Port Authority is currently gathering public input and will be submitting a draft environmental report to the Federal Transit Administration.
The proposal would demolish the existing terminal and construct a new, slightly bigger one in the same location. That phase of the project will take another four years and plans call for a permanent bus terminal to open in , he said. In addition, the temporary bus terminal will be converted to its permanent use as a terminal to get interstate buses off city streets that now make curbside passenger pick up, and for bus storage.
Core structures for four proposed towers to be built above the bus terminal would be included in the construction to be built out later, a technique the Port Authority used building the remaining World Trade Center towers after Tower One was built. Three would be commercial towers and one would built for residential and mixed use. The public hearings are being held to satisfy Environmental Impact Statement requirements of the Federal Transit Administration, which could lead to federal funding for the bus terminal.
A second Zoom public hearing will be held on Thursday and emailed and written comments will be taken on the project website until July Air quality and pollution remains a concern, both from the new terminal and from existing Lincoln Tunnel traffic gridlocked on 9th and 10th Avenues, she said. Neighbors also fear air pollution will get worse from traffic delayed during the project. Finally she said the community board would like the height and mass of a proposed to story tower reduced.
A speaker during an afternoon hearing had a solution that could answer the concerns of Community Board 4 — build the bus terminal in New Jersey.
The Port Authority never considered the New Jersey side.
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