By Peter A. Buxbaum, AJOTThe idea of connecting the New Jersey and New York sides of the port with a cross-harbor freight tunnel, originally proposed decades ago, is still on the Port Authority’s drawing board. Originally a New York City pet project, the Port Authority has taken over the development of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) which is required as a prerequisite by federal law to obtaining a construction permit. The Port Authority has also purchased the New York-New Jersey Railroad, the company which has been providing rail car barge services across the harbor for the last number of years. “We felt that by taking direction of the EIS we could help make the operation more successful,” said Rick Larrabee, director of port commerce at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Larrabee expects the EIS process to be completed “sometime next year.” The idea behind the cross harbor program is to reduce roadway congestion and pollution and reinvigorate an important rail freight corridor. A capital investment of $45 million in the program this year “will allow for an increase of 40 percent in both rail car volumes and associated revenues by December 2011,” according to a Port Authority document. The Environmental Impact Statement is being prepared jointly by the Port Authority and the the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), according to Port Authority project manager Laura Shabe. Its purpose, she said, is “to evaluate alternatives to improve the movement of goods in the region by enhancing the transportation of freight across New York Harbor. These alternatives will include short-term and long-term strategies for enhancing the regional freight network, reducing traffic congestion, improving air quality, and generating economic benefits.” The Cross Harbor Freight Program is studying freight movements to, from, within, and through a 54-county data analysis region on both sides of the Hudson River, Shabe explained. These freight flows “are projected to increase from approximately one billion tons in 2007 to approximately 1.5 billion tons in 2035,” she said. “Approximately twenty-five percent of these movements involve a crossing of the Hudson River. The region’s ability to serve its markets is increasingly threatened by its heavy reliance on trucking goods over an aging and congested roadway network, while non-highway freight modes, particularly rail and waterborne, remain underdeveloped and underutilized.” Three types of alternatives for the enhancement of cross harbor freight service will be evaluated and documented in the EIS: one alternative involving no action; a second series of proposed solutions called “management alternatives,” which aim to maximize the efficiency of existing transportation network; and a third set of “build alternatives,” which will include float and ferry improvements and/or a new rail or multi-modal freight tunnel between Greenville, N.J., and South Brooklyn, N.Y. “A series of scoping meetings were conducted in October 2010 to present and gather public comments on the project purpose and need and the analysis methodologies,” said Shabe. “These were followed by several public information sessions and meetings with interest groups and community groups in early 2011.” The Port Authority and the FHWA expect to publish the a draft impact statement toward the end of this year. The final document will follow in the second quarter of 2012, according to Shabe. The Port Authority acquired the rail car float operation two years ago in a move thought to enable the strategical increase of business on that service, Larrabee said. “The idea was that,while we were making a determination on the EIS process we felt we could grow that business a little bit,” he explained. “We have been able to acquire federal funds and have become the direct recipient of those funds. We have used some the funds to develop the EIS and the remainder to rehabilitate the railroad.” That rehabilitation has included improving facilities on both sides of the Hudson