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| SJPC approves measures to move the Paulsboro Marine Terminal project |
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7/28/2009 To create thousands of new jobs and spur economic growth in South Jersey during the worse Recession since the Great Depression, the directors of the South Jersey Port Corporation today approved agreements for the funding, design and project management and development of the $274 million omni-port in Paulsboro, New Jersey.
“With today’s the agreements, we expect to break ground on the Paulsboro Marine Terminal by September or early October and get the construction underway with a target for operations within 24 to 30 months after environmental permit approvals,” said board chairman Richard A. Alaimo.
“This is an ambitious and historic economic development project that required the visions and constant commitment of Governor Jon S. Corzine, Senate Majority Leader Stephen M. Sweeney (Freeholder Director of Gloucester County) and Paulsboro Mayor John Burzichelli (deputy speaker of the State Assembly), and along with our board and Executive Director Joseph A. Balzano.”
In today’s action the board:
• Authorized a Development and Management Agreement between the SJPC and the Gloucester County Improvement Authority in which the GCIA would serve as the SJPC’s agent in the design and construction of the 190-acre marine terminal with upwards to four berths.
• Awarded a $3,482,790 contract to the firm of CH2MHILL for the final design and project management of the Paulsboro Marine Terminal.
• Approved issuance of upwards to $56 million in bonds by the SJPC to begin the site preparation of the Paulsboro Marine Terminal.
• Approved a lease with the Borough of Paulsboro for 45 acres of land that the Borough of Paulsboro acquired from Essex Chemical Co. The Essex Chemical parcels were always
part of the marine terminal plan and today’s agreement formally integrates those parcels with the land already acquired from BP Oil.
• Approved the second year of a two year agreement between the SJPC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Seaboard Fisheries Institute for a study of the Delaware River estuary. The SJPC will continue to serve as the local sponsor for the study to be conducted by the Seaboard Fisheries Institute. The study’s findings will contribute to the scientific understanding of the Delaware Estuary while assisting in the development of the SJPC’s environmental and mitigation requirements for the Paulsboro Marine Terminal.
The alliance between the SJPC and GCIA was formalized in September 2007 after several years of collaboration to develop the Paulsboro Marine Terminal.
“This is about jobs and how a creative alliances between the state and local governments can create the good paying jobs we need,” said Senate Majority Leader Sweeney. “Sometime you have to think outside of the bureaucratic box. By pooling the resources and expertise of the South Jersey Port Corporation and the Gloucester County Improvement Authority, in a month or two, bulldozers will be moving earth and building a port which some naysayers said could never be done. I thank Governor Corzine for his commitment to economic growth in South Jersey.”
“For the people of Paulsboro and South Jersey this means good paying jobs with benefits not only for those who will work at the port but for the businesses that will be created to service the port and those new businesses that will develop because of the port,” said Mayor Burzichelli. “Ports are the vital engines the economy.”
For SJPC Executive Director Balzano, the development of the Paulsboro
Marine Terminal is one of the most significant economic development events in region’s history.
”Our rivers and oceans are water highways of commerce no less important than concrete highways. No civilization who hopes to tap into a global economy has been able to prosper without them,” he said. “Now we in South Jersey are expanding our port assets and that means good things for the economy and for workers.
“Currently, because of the world Recession, we’re in a valley,” Balzano added. “As the port in Paulsboro comes online, the economy should be on the upswing and our ports in Camden and Paulsboro will be buzzing and we’ll be looking for expanded growth and for more berths in South Jersey.
“Paulsboro is key to the SJPC’s plan for incremental growth. We’ve reached capacity in Camden and have turned to Paulsboro to grow, as we will turn to other good sights in South Jersey for further growth and more jobs,” Balzano added. “This is about more jobs, not less. This is about keeping good paying jobs in Camden and creating more good paying jobs in Paulsboro. That’s what ports do. They create jobs, opportunity and economic vitality.”
The South Jersey Port Corporation is an agency of the State of New Jersey that owns, operates and manages the Ports of Camden and Salem, overseeing the import and export of 4 million tons of international bulk, break-bulk and container cargos annually into and through the Southern New Jersey region.
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