A plan to spend US$356 million for the expansion of a facility in Jersey City has been approved by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The facility is used to load containers onto trains after they are shipped by water from the Red Hook Terminal in Brooklyn.
The expansion aims to reduce truck traffic and emissions as well as help to handle the expected growth in container volumes at the adjacent Global Container Terminal.
The site currently handles around 4,000 containers a year shipped from the Port Authority's terminal in Brooklyn.
Two-thirds of the cost is to be funded by grants and by revenues from a facilities charge on every container that passes through the port.
According to port authority executive director Patrick Foye, the success of the project will be dependent on the facilities charge remaining in effect.
