Local New York City-based blog Gothamist reported today that New York City is eyeing a transformative vision for how shipping and freight intersect and function across the city.
NYC plans to transform six locations around the city’s waterfront into “hubs” for maritime shipping. The idea is to make it easier to complete shipments via waterways, not roads. The objective is for the shipping hubs to replace existing truck routes/trucking infrastructure, in order to reduce carbon emissions and air pollution.
The six locations under consideration for the proposed shipping hubs include:
- Pier 36, Lower East Side, Manhattan
- Stuyvesant Cove, Stuyvesant Town, Manhattan
- Downtown Heliport, Financial District/Seaport, Manhattan
- McGinnis Cement Terminal, Hunts Point, The Bronx
- 23rd Street Basin, Gowanus Bay, Brooklyn
- 29th Street Apron, Gowanus Bay, Brooklyn
If the city gets its way, the transformation and launch of the redesigned shipping hubs can help the increased volume of consumer and business deliveries, as evidenced by the congestion and street blockages by large trucks. Thousands of trucks come into the city each day, increasing emissions and pollution.
The plan’s specifics
The existence of NYC’s transformative plans was made known for the first time last week, when the city’s Economic Development Corporation released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for engineering firms to bid on and join the endeavor.
According to reporting, barges would be used as landing spots for delivery personnel and maritime vessels. These barges would somehow allow vessels to dock nearby and offload shipment inventory without having to be transported deeper into the city via truck.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams has pledged his “Blue Highways” program, aiming to remove commercial traffic from roads and shift it into waterways. The program was announced last November. The initiative reported today is part of the “Blue Highways” program.
A pilot program
Since New York City is the cultural and financial capital of the world, any new experiments and pilot programs that take place there will be watched across the globe. If the pilot program is successful, the model can be deployed and replicated in other cities that benefit from extensive waterways, both in the U.S. and eventually abroad.
The goal, according to NYC’s Economic Development Corporation, is to eventually save 92 million miles for trucks and 8.3 million gallons of fuel, annually.
