NYC plans 6 new waterfront shipping hubs to replace truck freight with barges

 

New York City officials plan to turn six waterfront locations into maritime shipping hubs as a way to handle the booming number of e-commerce deliveries across the five boroughs.

It marks the latest step in Mayor Eric Adams’ “Blue Highways” plan to shift more of the city’s freight off the streets and onto the rivers and harbors.

 

The request seeks an engineering firm to design barge landings and access points where e-bikes and small delivery vehicles can transport cargo for the “last mile” of its journey. The locations include:

 

• McGinnis Cement Terminal in the the Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood

• Stuyvesant Cove adjacent to StuyTown

• Pier 36 on the Lower East Side

• Downtown Manhattan Heliport in the Financial District

• The 23rd Street basin and 29th Street apron on Brooklyn’s Gowanus Bay

 

The EDC in its request estimates the plan would take 6,240 short-haul trucks off the streets, and states the city’s “over-reliance on trucks negatively impacts air quality, traffic, quality of life and safety.” The plan would save more than 92 million miles of truck travel and 8.3 million gallons of fuel every year, according to the request.

 

The release of the EDC's plan comes less than a month after the mayor proposed a new government agency to rein in delivery companies like Amazon. A report published by the city three years ago estimated that 2.7 million e-commerce packages would be delivered in the city every day in 2024 — nearly twice as many as in 2018. You can read more here.

 

We are awaiting to see if this proposal gets Federal funding. Reducing truck traffic in our fine city would be welcomed. Please reach out to our team with any NYC questions