ATLANTA – State Representative Mickey Stephens (D-Savannah) recently traveled to the Port of New York and New Jersey with a delegation of state legislative leaders for high-level briefings on the operations of the Port, the largest port on the East Coast and the third-largest in the nation. The delegation’s visit was designed to emphasize the need for Southern ports to continue essential infrastructure advancements to accommodate larger vessels and expanded cargo volumes expected in coming years.
“This visit reaffirmed the importance for continuing to develop Georgia’s ports and the infrastructure around the ports, including highways, rail access, warehouses and related logistics to operations,” said Rep. Stephens. “Georgia has to take advantage of the projected increases in international trade, including after the expected 2016 completion of the Panama Canal expansion project.”
The visit, organized by the Southern Office of The Council of State Governments (CSG) and the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC), focused on briefing the legislative delegation on critical policy measures necessary to advance Georgia Ports. The briefings included an overview of the Port’s operations by Molly Campbell, Director, Port Commerce Department, which included details on raising the roadway of the Bayonne Bridge, building a replacement for the Goethals Bridge, initiating harbor deepening efforts, continuing work to lengthen existing berths and acquiring Super Post Panamax cranes. This was followed by details on the Port Performance Task Force by Beth Rooney, Assistant Director, Port Performance Initiatives. The Task Force includes industry executives and port officials and seeks to identify challenges to port efficiency and service reliability and devise solutions to overcome these challenges. Finally, the delegation was provided a facilities overview by Aaron Sherburne, General Manager, Port Commerce Department. After the briefings, the SLC delegation drove to several of the Port’s terminals for a first-hand look at the infrastructure upgrades in progress, along with insights into operations of this major East Coast port.
In 2014, the Port of New York and New Jersey handled over 5.7 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units, a 5.6 percent increase from the prior year. In 2015, the Port is expected to exceed the levels reached in 2014. The record volumes allowed the Port to maintain its position as the busiest on the East Coast, with nearly 30 percent of the total market share. The total dollar value of all cargo that moved through the port exceeded $207 billion.
The SLC was established in 1947 and is composed of the presiding officers and key legislators from 15 Southern states. CSG is a non-partisan and nonprofit organization. For more than a decade and a half, the SLC has focused on the critical role played by Southern ports in the economic calculations of the Southern region as a whole.
For more information and a complete listing of SLC publications on ports, please click here.
Representative Mickey Stephens represents the citizens of District 165, which includes portions of Chatham County. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2008, and currently serves on the Health & Human Services, Insurance, Legislative & Congressional Reapportionment, Regulated Industries, and Ways & Means committees.
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