Many local officials, manufacturers and businesses believe that there is a need for an inland port to handle international cargo in the Central New York area. To fill that need, there are two competing projects vying for the approval of local officials to come to fruition.
The proposals stem from the fact that the Panama Canal, the Central American waterway bridging the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, currently is undergoing an expansion that will allow for larger cargo ships to pass through locks, which will allow for an increase in the number of international products that are brought to other ports, including those that are on the eastern coast of the United States. Because of this increased importation potential, many believe there is an opportunity to develop an inland port in Central New York to be able to export goods to an international scale at a lower price.
“The geographic extent of the impacts of Panama Canal expansion will depend on a number factors, including: the capacity of individual U.S. ports and their related infrastructure to handle shifting trade flows, the response of shipping companies to port and inland infrastructure capacity development, the adaptation of supply-chain management methods that take advantage of the scale economies offered by canal expansion and the allocation of cost savings among the various domestic and foreign players,” said a 2012 economic impact study report of the Panama Canal expansion by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
According to the report, this expansion will lead to lower transportational costs on international goods, capital investments and operation changes in the intermodal port system in the United States. Currently, only domestic cargo is imported and exported at the CSX rail in DeWitt, but international cargo actually runs to it from the Port of Elizabeth in New Jersey, and they are sent east to be unloaded.
To meet this need for increase in flow of international goods, it would be beneficial for Central New York to invest in an international inland freight port, where international goods could be imported and manufacturers and businesses in the CNY area could export goods made here to an international consumer base, according to the report.
Two projects have emerged that propose to help fill the gap of international importing and exporting.
Jamesville quarry inland port proposal
The CenterState CNY Port, which is part of the CNY Rising initiative, would be located along the north side of Route 481 in the town of DeWitt and a small portion in the town of Onondaga. The location currently is owned by Hanson Aggregates North America. The CenterState NY Inland Port is being proposed by the Port of Oswego Authority, which would operate the facility by handling, warehousing and shipping freight between the ports of Oswego and New York / New Jersey.
According to the Sept. 30 scooping document of the project, about 11,000 feet of new rail siding and 9,000 feet of loading/offloading track, a container and stacking area as well as warehouses would need to be built to complete this project.
The CenterState inland port project in Jamesville has already been supported by many legislative entities, municipalities and groups, including U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, Congressman John Katko, Secretary to the U.S. Department of Transportation Anthony Fox, the city of Auburn, Fingerlakes Railway and the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council.
The State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) process for the project has already begun, and a public meeting was held Oct. 13 at Jamesville Elementary. More than 150 citizens attended, where some addressed concerns about the port being too close to their communities.
A citizen group in Jamesville — the Citizens First Coalition — has recently been formed to monitor the impacts this project could have on the area, including environmental, increased traffic, noise and light pollution and loss of quality of life.
“We are people looking to collect the information relating to this project because it will affect us the most,” said Lisa Carey-Moore at the Oct. 26 meeting of the DeWitt Town Board. “We want to look for a future of transparency when it comes to this project.”
Opposition to this project hasn’t come from just the neighbors though. The DeWitt Town Board, DeWitt Planning Board and Dewitt Advisory Conservation Committee (DACC) have all sent letters to the Port of Oswego Authority criticizing the fact that the negative impacts from the port would mainly go to DeWitt, but other municipalities would economically benefit with no negative impacts in their community.
“This project will not and does not fit within the parameters of the Comprehensive Plan of the Town of Dewitt. Clearly, the information provided thus far is not adequate to provide a basis for the town to support this project,” said the letter from the town board. “The scope and magnitude of this project demand that the entire approval process be thorough and transparent. Inasmuch as the project is located almost entirely within the Town of Dewitt, there is no community more impacted by the decisions that will or may be made in regard to the project. The Town of Dewitt Planning Board should and must be integrally involved as an involved agency for SEQR purposes with regard to this project to ensure that this project adheres to all zoning and land use regulations.“
Neither Zelko Kirincich, CEO of the Port of Oswego Authority, nor Rob Simpson, CEO of CenterState CEO, responded to requests for comment.
3Gi project off of the CSX rail in DeWitt
The Jamesville project is not the only inland port project in the works. Another project has emerged in the race to get an inland port to the area, and would be located west of the CSX’s DeWitt yard between Girden Road and Fremont Road.
“We already have the infrastructure needed for this project. It would make a huge economic impact on the area” said Eckardt Beck, CEO of 3Gi Inc. “The Jamesville project was the thing that forced me to come public with this.”
Beck said he is working with colleagues from the port in Worcester, Mass., and the Port of Elizabeth in New Jersey to develop an inland port in Syracuse that would serve to import international goods at a lower price, and would make shipping goods made here, including dairy, grain and lumber, easier and cheaper for companies. Beck said he has spoken with about 170 companies in the area to ensure that this is something that is needed and would be beneficial.
Beck and his colleague Dan Spechmann have presented to both the Manlius and DeWitt town boards their project in order to gain support at a local government level, although the project will likely need to gain approval at the county level.
Spechmann said, in addition to economic benefits, there are also environmental benefits to this project. The area where the project is being proposed is recognized as an intermodal corridor by the United States Department of Transportation, which means the project is eligible to receive federal funds. The plan for this project could be beneficial for the residents in those areas, said Spechmann, because they plan to take freight truck traffic off of Fremont Road and most of Kirkville Road, and want to build a road that would allow trucks to come off of Route 481 and drive directly down to the inland port to be loaded with cargo from trains.
In addition to diverting traffic off residential streets, Spechmann said this project could aid with wetland restoration, and 3Gi has been working with the CNY Land Trust to make this possible.
“The beauty of this from an environmental perspective is that we truly are in a position to do a wetlands restoration work that the CNY Economic Development Board has funded to create a buffer so that instead of going down Kirkville Road and have all the truck traffic associated with the gate in and out, trucks are coming through a wetland area,” said Spechmann. “We’re using the environment to develop the economy. I think that looks like a very positive deal.”
Although 3Gi has not secured the approval of CSX railways to be able to use their rails to unload and load international cargo, which is vital to the project, Beck said he believes this project is a better solution that the project proposed in Jamesville.
Currently, there have been no public meetings about the 3Gi inland port project.
