– From “schednet.com” on 12/29/2010:

“New Jersey truckers tell port where to stick their stickers”

“The American Trucking Associations (ATA) have told a federal regulatory agency that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has no authority to have a programme (sic) that would use stickers to identify trucks that comply with its clean-air scheme.

“The ATA told the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that federal law precludes state and local authorities from requiring trucks to display decals or stickers not authorised by the US Transportation Department, reported Newark’s Journal of Commerce.

“The PANYNJ changed the rules on October 1 and demanded trucks entering port terminals to display a sticker showing compliance to their demand that they are powered by engines built after 1993.

“But PANYNJ relented after an outcry, making the sticker scheme ‘voluntary’, saying trucks without stickers would no longer be denied access. But truckers seek a declaratory ruling on whether stickers are legal because statements from the PANYNJ indicate voluntary stickers would expedite access, thus implying discrimination against those trucks that don’t have them. The FMCSA will accept interventions until January 3.

“‘The voluntary credentials proposed by the [port] authority should not be allowed, because it implicitly threatens carriers who do not use it with burdens and in practice makes a voluntary sticker a mandatory one,’ the ATA said in its filing.” –

[Please review our “in-house delivery” method of dealing with the trucking industry and the fetching of containers. Once our patented storage and retrieval systems are retrofitted into U.S. container yards, air pollution and every other problem bugging port (and other) authorities will be history.]

– From The Journal of Commerce on 12/30/2010:

“NY-NJ Port Authority Opts to Raise Bayonne Bridge”

“The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, seeking to settle a problem critical to the port’s future, said Wednesday it will propose to raise the roadbed of the Bayonne Bridge rather than replace the bridge in its entirety to accommodate larger container ships.

“What the port authority called its ‘raise the roadway’ solution will involve an ambitious, multi-year overhaul of existing roads leading onto the bridge and raising the span’s main roadway some 64-feet.

“But the project wouldn’t be as disruptive or expensive as tearing down the span, an important commuter route connecting Bayonne, N.J., to Staten Island, N.Y.

“With only 151-feet of clearance at the Kill van Kull channel, the bridge is too low for the larger ships expected to serve port terminals beyond the span once the newly enlarged Panama Canal opens in 2014. The new project, the port authority said, would raise the clearance to 215-feet …

“The port authority did not estimate what the project would cost, or say when it would be completed, but the authority set aside $ 1 billion toward a solution. The work is still at an early stage. The authority said in a statement that it still must complete engineering and design work on the proposed solution and will look to ‘initiate and expedite the environmental regulatory process.’

“That process could take years under normal circumstances, but trade and business development experts say the region faces a critical deadline with the opening of an expanded Panama Canal. Ports up and down the East Coast see the potential for larger ships from Asia through the Panama Canal as a unique opportunity to gain new cargo and entrench themselves as gateways for the larger business.

“The intertwined infrastructure and multi-state jurisdiction around the New York-New Jersey [port authority] has made a solution difficult to come by, however …” –

[Please review what the U.S. Department of Labor has been revealing about the nation’s growing number of unemployed. No one in any position of “authority” has come up with a way to create the millions of jobs necessary to provide relief during this developing depression, yet they continue to fantasize about great volumes of cargo about to be directed to “ports up and down the East Coast”. If more and more Americans are without weekly paychecks, just who do they suppose will be buying those great volumes of cargo? And what foreign entities would be stupid enough to provide goods to consumers who can’t pay for them? Just because U.S. officials are walking around in a fog, don’t think for a minute that foreign businessmen are similarly challenged.]

– From “philly.com” on 12/31/2010:

“Without financial aid, Aker Philadelphia Shipyard will close by July”

“Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, which once employed more than 1,000 at the Navy Yard and which has been a significant Philadelphia economic force for a decade, is just months from shutting down. Aker’s survival relies on several financial-rescue efforts coming together to finance the construction of two more oceangoing tankers.

“‘If they don’t build these next two ships, this yard is shutting down,’ said Manuel ‘Manny’ Stamatakis, chairman of the Philadelphia Shipyard Development Corp.’ …”

[Please call us, Manny. We can bail out Aker – as well as those destined to become unemployed. We’ve made a number of visits to officials at the Navy Yard, to officials in Philadelphia, and to your elected representatives, but none of them have their heads on straight. Maybe you have more sense.]