Re-opening The Bridge
In 1994, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) purchased the Arthur Kill Railroad Lift Bridge and the North Shore branch of rail service from CSX. On December 15, 2004, NYCEDC and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced a joint $72 million project to rehabilitate the bridge and reactivate freight rail service on Staten Island. Repairs include repainting the steel and rehabilitating the lift mechanism. The bridge was painted royal blue in an homage to the B&O. The rehabilitation project was completed in June 2006.
On October 4, 2006, a train crossed the bridge for the first time in 16 years. It consisted of just a single locomotive which will take on switching duties at the New York Container Terminal, also known by its old name, Howland Hook.
On April 2, 2007, normal operations involving garbage removal from the Staten Island Transfer Station started, which will result in an estimated 90,000 annual truck loads diverted from the nearby Goethals Bridge. On October 4, 2007, New York Container Terminal, which operates Howland Hook, announced the opening of on-dock rail service via the bridge, with regular service by Conrail, CSX and Norfolk Southern railroads.
Read more about this topic: Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge
Famous quotes containing the word bridge:
“Crime seems to change character when it crosses a bridge or a tunnel. In the city, crime is taken as emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs, though, it’s intimate and psychological—resistant to generalization, a mystery of the individual soul.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)