Because the Bayonne Bridge is only 151 feet above the water, larger container ships often cannot cross under it to reach our marine terminals – Port Newark, Elizabeth and Howland Hook in Staten Island. The expansion of the Panama Canal is expected to result in a shift to larger, cleaner, more-efficient ships servicing our region and other East Coast markets. In order to ensure these new ships can reach our ports, the clearance limitation must be addressed. 

A new bill has been introduced in the House that’s being dubbed the Freight Infrastructure Reinvestment Act of 2014 (FIRA). The bill would establish a 1% tax to be added to the cost of all shipments of freight cargo within the United States to be paid by the shipper.

Raise the Bridge or Lower the River?

For the ports of NY and NJ to remain competitive in the super container vessels age we will have to either raise the bridges or lower the river by dredging in order to accommodate the larger vessels. As we move the ships further up into the Atlantic Ocean Ports and Gulf Ports we start to see some new issues arising in doing business in the US. Among the biggest are our highway and waterway infrastructure.

The proposed widening of the Panama Canal is going to have a profound effect on the Gulf ports as well East coast ports. It is also going to change the neighboring countries to Panama ports to be a more vital link to US via rail. It is also going to have a major impact on the highway infrastructure in many ports in the US, Savannah and Charleston port authority's have already worked on partnerships between there two states to deepen there waterways to accommodate these new super container-ships.