South Jersey Ports will receive a $9 Million grant from the US Department of Transportation for expansion of its barge capacity and intermodal rail connectivity at the Port of Salem. This Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant supports the port’s existing sand and concrete shipments while strengthening New Jersey’s leadership in building, supporting and manufacturing key components for the offshore wind industry off the Atlantic Coast.
The project will rehabilitate a 150-linear-foot bulkhead and extend it to approximately 400 linear feet; perform site preparation, improvements, and refurbish a multi-modal rail connection.
“This is another example of the broad support for the ongoing development of South Jersey’s marine terminals to be the premiere logistical, manufacturing and support center for a job-rich, carbon-free, Green Economy growing along our coast… as well as our general cargo mission,” said Andrew Saporito, Executive Director and CEO of South Jersey Ports.
“We want to thank our Congressional delegation, especially U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, Congressman Donald Norcross and Congressman Jeff Van Drew for their consistent support for South Jersey Ports. They’ve been working in tandem with Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney, Assemblyman John Burzichelli and Assemblyman Adam Taliaferro to make South Jersey a national leader of this dynamic, new economy while also improving our overall capacity to service our current and future marine cargo customers.”
Salem Marine Terminal – with multi-modal rail connections, close links to interstate highways and bridges, barge and navigation expertise along the Salem River, and its sibling South Jersey marine terminals – provide an integrated port network to support the development of the offshore wind farms.
New Jersey has attracted billions of dollars in investment in its offshore wind industry and has awarded over 3,700 megawatts of offshore wind capacity, which is the most in the country. South Jersey Ports has already invested $400 million to build the Paulsboro Marine Terminal, which handles one million tons of steel cargo annually. Engineered with heavy-load decks to accommodate the massive weight of offshore energy components, Paulsboro Marine Terminal will soon transport the 5 million pound monopiles which are the foundation components of the offshore wind towers. For the past few months, EEW Group, a global-leading manufacturer of monopoles, has been building a $250 million state-of-the-art monopole plant at the Port of Paulsboro.
Doubling down, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority is building the New Jersey Wind Port in Lower Alloways Creek Township – 11 miles from the Salem Marine Terminal – to manufacture, assemble, and deploy the huge offshore wind turbines to the Atlantic Ocean.