Port Jersey, officially the Port Jersey Port Authority Marine Terminal and referred to as the Port Jersey Marine Terminal, is an

intermodal freight transport Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (e.g., rail, ship, aircraft, and truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing ...

facility that includes a

container terminal A container port, container terminal, or intermodal terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land v ...

located on the

Upper New York Bay New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay ...

in the

Port of New York and New Jersey The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York metropolitan area, New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. It includes the sy ...

. The municipal border of the

Hudson County Hudson County is a List of counties in New Jersey, county in the U.S. state of New Jersey, its smallest and most densely populated. Lying in the northeast of the state and on the west bank of the North River (Hudson River), Hudson River, the No ...

cities of

Jersey City Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

and

Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...

runs along the long pier extending into the bay. The facility was created between 1972 and 1976 and acquired by the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, (PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ) is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate c ...

in July 2010. CMA CGM operates a post-panamax shipping facility at this terminal under the name Port Liberty Bayonne. Much of Port Jersey is part of United States Foreign-Trade Zone 49. Most of the area in and around the facility is restricted, though a walkway along its northern side is accessible to the general public and may eventually connect with the

Hudson River Waterfront Walkway The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, also known as the Hudson River Walkway, is a promenade along the Hudson Waterfront in New Jersey. The ongoing and incomplete project located on Kill van Kull and the western shore of Upper New York Bay and t ...

. A very small bird sanctuary (specifically for the least tern) is also located on the promenade.

History

The area, east of the Greenville section of Jersey City was originally tidal marshes and white cedar swamps, and was first used for industrial purposes beginning in the 1800s. The pier that become Port Jersey was created in the between 1972 and 1976 using landfill. The facility was once known as the NorthEast Auto Terminal (NEAT) and was operated as a private auto import and export facility for several decades before its purchase in 2008 by the

. The location of the PA Auto Marine Terminal and its relatively airdraft-free deepwater access for larger vessels led to the PANYNJ to convert the facility into a container terminal. Anticipating the needs of the planned and existing super-panamax containerships which will call in the port upon the completion of the new Panama Canal Megalocks, NEAT was incrementally shut down and its share of the auto import/export market completely transferred to the Bayonne Auto Terminal and the Port Newark FAPS facility by 2011. After the PANYNJ purchase, the container terminal facilities were expanded in conjunction with the former operator of the terminal, Global Terminals. The largest ship ever to call at the Port of New York-New Jersey, the MOL Benefactor, docked at Port Jersey in July 2016 after sailing from China through the newly widened Panama Canal. In July 2024,

Liebherr Liebherr () is a German-Swiss multinational corporation, multinational equipment manufacturer based in Bulle, Switzerland, with its main production facilities and origins in Germany. Liebherr consists of over 130 companies organized into 11 divi ...

upgraded four cranes at the port by raising them and extending their reach by to accommodate larger cargo ships. In October, Port Jersey received four new super post panamax cranes capable of serving 24,000

twenty-foot equivalent unit The twenty-foot equivalent unit (abbreviated TEU or teu) is a general unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports.Rowlett, 2004. It is based on the volume of a intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box tha ...

(TEU) vessels raising the number of cranes at the port from eight to twelve. Additionally, work is ongoing to create a third berth for vessels with a depth of .

Channels

Ambrose Channel is the main shipping channel in and out of the

. Branching canal to the south the Port Jersey Channel separates the pier from the peninsula pier of a former military base, Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY). The a multi-use area is home to the Cape Liberty Cruise Port (one of the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...

's three cruise ship terminals), residential and commercial buildings, and land owned by the PANYNJ to be further developed as port facilities. Deepening of the Port Jersey Channel to was authorized by the Army Corps of Engineers in 2010. and completed in 2016. To the north lies Claremeont Terminal.

Rail

Port Jersey is one of the few areas on the Bergen Neck peninsula where freight rail lines are still in use. In October 2010 the PANYNJ announced plans to develop

ExpressRail ExpressRail is a network of on- or near-dock rail yards supporting intermodal freight transport at the major container terminals of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The development of dockside trackage and rail yards for transloading has bee ...

Port Jersey, allowing for more transfers to trains, and thus reducing transfers to trucks. Trains will use a renovated National Docks Secondary freight line to access the national network, part of the Liberty Freight Corridor. In December 2016, construction began on the $600 million Express Rail facility. The facility features 9,600 feet of track serviced by rail mounted gantry cranes that will have an annual capacity of 250,000 container lifts. Construction was scheduled to be completed by mid-2018. The first phase of the project, with four tracks and two gantry cranes, opened on January 7, 2019. The second and final phase of the project, with four additional tracks bringing the total number of tracks to eight, was opened on June 17, 2019. Improvements were also made to New York New Jersey Rail, a

switching and terminal railroad A switching and terminal railroad is a freight railroad company whose primary purpose is to perform local switching services or to own and operate a terminal facility. Switching is a type of operation done within the limits of a yard. It gener ...

that operates the only

car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of Lighter (barge), lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it i ...

in New York Harbor between Jersey City and

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. In 2017, a new barge, ''NYNJR100,'' was delivered that features four tracks that can carry up to 18 rail cars of length, with up to 2,298 long tons (2,335 tonne) of cargo. A second barge with the same capacity, ''NYNJR200,'' was delivered in 2018 with an older 14-car barge, the ''278,'' still in service.

Road

Port Jersey is served by New Jersey Route 440 which connects with the

Bayonne Bridge The Bayonne Bridge is an Through arch bridge, arch bridge that spans the Kill Van Kull between Staten Island, New York (state), New York, and Bayonne, New Jersey, Bayonne, New Jersey, United States. It carries New York State Route 440 and ...

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

. The Port is primarily accessed by Exit 14A of the Newark Bay Extension of the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highway, controlled-access toll roads in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although ma ...

, which underwent a $172 million reconstruction and expansion in 2018 to ease congestion for truckers and commuters. New Jersey Route 185 connects the facility to Greenville Yard.

Wind turbines

In 2010 the

announced its intentions to build a five tower

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

at Port Jersey within three years. The windfarm is part of a larger plan to expand the container port on the manmade peninsula to accommodate post-panamax ships. In May 2012, Global Container Terminals announced detailed plan of the port extension. It included the installation of 9 wind turbines in order to meet a zero emissions footprint of their crane operation during periods of wind power generation. As of mid-2017, this proposal has not seen any meaningful progress.

Solid waste

Port Jersey is the key transload terminal for solid waste from New York City barges to railcars. In 2004, the city announced its plans to minimize haulage of waste by truck. Jersey City benefits from a $10 million initial payment and annual payments of $250,000 for the arrangement. The plan faced opposition initially. In 2010, the plan was approved, with $118 million budgeted by the Port Authority. In 2010, the PANYNJ purchased the yard to begin the project. Waste handling improvement projects have continued in context of other improvements to the Greenville Rail Yard.

References

External links

The Port of New York and New Jersey

Port Liberty BayonneNew York New Jersey Rail
* {{Hudson County Transportation Network Container terminals Economy of Jersey City, New Jersey Geography of Hudson County, New Jersey Greenville Yard Neighborhoods in Hudson County, New Jersey Piers in New Jersey Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Port of New York and New Jersey Ports and harbors of New Jersey Transportation buildings and structures in Hudson County, New Jersey 1976 establishments in New Jersey Land reclamation in the United States