By David Tyler
Public officials from various levels of government expressed support for the long-awaited inland port project off Fremont Road in Manlius at the first stage of a public hearing on the project, held last Wednesday.
The applicant, 3Gi CNYIP Inc., is seeking a zone change on three parcels adjacent to the DeWitt railyard, which is owned by CSX. The port would manage the flow of imports and exports through Central New York, a service that will only become more important as the new Amazon warehouse in the town of Clay comes online.
Town of Manlius leaders invited stakeholders from all levels of government and the East Syracuse Minoa school district to weigh in on the project.
“From the school district’s perspective, it’s very important for us to have a strong economy,” said Donna Desiato, superintendent of ESM schools. “We do believe that logistically this can work, based on what we’ve seen to date.”
The project would be built in several phases. The first phase includes the creation of a two-acre yard to hold cargo containers, as well as an access road to Fremont Road, a truck scale and an office building.
The construction of the first phase would allow 3Gi to seek additional funding for later phases of the project.
Eckardt “Chris” Beck, the CEO of 3Gi, said the difference between a train terminal and a port is the ability to control the flow of traffic once a shipment arrives. The port would use sophisticated logistics software and gating to manage truck traffic to and from the port.
Matt Napierala, a Manlius-based engineer, detailed the size of the new Amazon facility in Clay, and estimated it would take more than 39,000 truckloads of cargo to simply fill that warehouse. Because the DeWitt Train Yard is the first inland stop from the Port of New Jersey, much of that traffic will initiate there.
“CSX is making money by transporting cargo,” Napierala said at a previous meeting on the project. “They don’t make money managing that cargo. They want to take cargo from point A to point B. Right now we have essentially a jetliner that is flying through the area without air traffic control.“
3Gi is working with Advent Emodal, the company that manages information flow and traffic at eight of the 10 largest ports in North America.
“Anywhere that an Amazon facility shows up, the world changes,” said Allan Thomas of Advent Emodal. “There’s going to be far more than 39,000 truck trips associated with [the Amazon facility].”
Without a port controlling that traffic, there would be no way to manage that flow to and from the railyard.
A number of area residents commented on the project through Facebook, citing primarily concerns with truck traffic.
The hearing will remain open and will be continued at the town board meeting on June 24.
