Queens Borough President Donovan Richards observes operations underway at a new construction support facility on the Bergen Basin along JFK Airport.
Photo courtesy of the Port Authority
Southeast Queens residents who are forced to deal with chronic traffic congestion around JFK Airport will get much-needed relief after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced on Sept. 27 that operations have started at a new construction support facility along the Bergen Basin.
The support facility will eliminate more than 300,000 truck trips along nearby streets by shifting to the use of barges to move material to and from the $19 billion airport redevelopment. The first barge to deliver material to the airport’s construction support facility was unloaded at a dock along Bergen Basin on the western edge of JFK, across from Hamilton Beach.
“Creating a construction support facility that enables us to eliminate hundreds of thousands of diesel-powered trucks from traveling across local streets is proof of the Port Authority’s commitment to our goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions agency-wide by 2050,” Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said. “It also reflects our commitment to the community to reduce the impact of this historic construction project on their neighborhoods and to enable minority- and women-owned businesses as well as local businesses to participate in an unprecedented number of business opportunities.”
The massive $19 billion project will replace six old terminals with four much larger state-of-the-art terminals and overhaul the airport’s road network over the next four to five years.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards observed the unloading of the first barge at the facility, which alone eliminated the need for nearly 200 trucks to carry the equivalent load.
“With this new construction support facility, we are not only getting countless trucks off local community streets and reducing vehicle…
Read the full article here
