Congressman Outlines Plan for $7B Business Corridor

While Menendez didn't specifically spell out the geography involved at a press conference here yesterday, the key element of the Liberty Corridor, as he called it, is New Jersey's port facilities stretching from Newark through Elizabeth and over to Bayonne. And because much of New Jersey's industrial growth has been happening in the form of warehouse/distribution projects along the New Jersey Turnpike, the assumption is that those areas would be included.

Menendez called his proposal yesterday, "more than just highways and railroads. Manufacturing, exporting and importing and R&D will co-exist next to one another. It will provide an incentive for companies to come to New Jersey."

According to observers, Menendez's plan essentially ties together a number of current projects and several proposals that have been on the table for years. Existing efforts include a massive dredging of the Port of New York and New Jersey to allow larger cargo vessels to use its facilities, a project that began about two years ago.

To that, Menendez's plan would add an expansion of the existing rail network, create a barge service to shuttle goods by water within the region's scattered port facilities and make a number of highway improvements aimed at easing congestion on the region's highways. "This will allow cargo to be moved more efficiently from existing distribution centers," he said at the press conference. "The result would be to reduce congestion."

Another key element would be the redevelopment of brownfields sites, which amount to an estimated 1,000 acres within the region. Menendez proposed that such sites, with state and federal assistance, could be returned to use as what he terms "freight and manufacturing villages."

While such a proposal would seem to be a state-level issue, Menendez's involvement is tied to his standing as a senior member of the House Transportation Committee. Much of the funding would come from federal sources, notably from a transportation funding bill currently before Congress. It would also rely on money from New Jersey's transportation trust fund, which itself requires legislative renewal.

Indeed, at a real estate industry public policy forum earlier this month, New Jersey DOT commissioner Jack Lettiere said, "we're running out of money. Our work to rebuild and expand New Jersey's transportation infrastructure depends on the re-authorization of both the state's transportation trust fund and federal funding. I urge everyone to get actively involved in getting that done."

Additional funding would come, as well, from the Port Authority of NY/NJ, which already has several capital improvement projects under way to upgrade and expand its port facilities, most of which lie in New Jersey.