The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced today during Climate Week NYC that it has reached a milestone in the agency’s $19 billion redevelopment of John F. Kennedy International Airport, where an innovative strategy to create a barging operation to support airport construction has replaced 250,000 truck trips and eliminated more than 7.5 million miles of truck travel on local roads and on the region’s highways.
Replacing trucks with barges has lessened the environmental impact of construction at JFK on the surrounding communities while supporting the Port Authority’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The reduced trucking mileage is more than five times what was initially projected when the barging operation launched in September 2023 in response to concerns from the surrounding communities about safety, noise, congestion, and the environmental impact of trucks servicing JFK construction.
Barges capable of carrying the equivalent of 200 truckloads of materials and debris arrive and depart from a dock that was built along Bergen Basin on the western edge of the airport across from the Hamilton Beach neighborhood in Queens. Additionally, the facility, which sits on a 12-acre site on the western edge of the airport includes a concrete production plant and a concrete crushing facility to recycle construction debris that is repurposed for use in building projects, particularly roads. On-site concrete production and recycling have reduced the need to truck in those materials for the project.
“From the outset of our redevelopment of JFK, the Port Authority has been committed to reducing the impact of construction in the surrounding communities,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole. “As we celebrate Climate Week NYC, we are proud to say that we have lived up to that commitment by replacing thousands of trucks with a barging operation that is safer, cleaner and more sustainable while building a new airport that our region and our closet neighbors can be proud of.”…