Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Word from Greenport

Gossips has learned that, at last night's Greenport Planning Board meeting, O&G's application for the Greenport section of their proposed haul road from the quarry to the river was, after months of discussion, determined to be complete, and a public hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, August 24. The Greenport section of the proposed road would follow the path of the abandoned rail bed from the quarry, across Route 9, and on to Route 9G. The idea is that this road would cross 9G and continue on the abandoned rail bed, commonly known as the "causeway," through South Bay to the river.

3 comments:

  1. I hope it's made clear at the next hearing that the City of Hudson might possibly reject any possible roadway from anywhere to the River. Greenport also has to look at the implications of adding traffic lights, and all that entails (costs), that we and the next generation will be paying for. Even if Holcim/O&G pay for the costs of "their" road, we are still living with remnants of past generations that have not been cleaned up: toxic dumping, elevators, hoppers, over road transport bridges, forgotten storage areas, etc. They do most of their transporting by road, not by river. please everyone think about that. Why in the world do they need this complicated system in place that disrupts the beauty of the Hudson Valley? Most companies use road and/or rail, which O&G do use. They are always talking about road and truck traffic, but never river traffic... why? Even if they speak of river traffic... where do they ship? Is it really cheaper than taking a load to MA, or CT or Albany? Why are they not using the land they have east of Hudson, near their quarries to store their salt and gravel? They have a lot of land already cleared up there!

    Ugh.

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  2. I'm afraid that the City of Hudson might not reject the 'causeway' road.
    There are a lot of residents of the 2nd Ward, 4th Ward and 5th ward who are anxious to get the 'trucks' out of their wards at any cost. And afterall, at least one of their aldermen thinks it's a swamp. A lot of convincing needs to be done to point up the value of the wetlands and the long term benefits in restoring them. Another route must be found for the trucks or a buyout must be contemplated.

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  3. Re: cost of transport -
    The cost to O&G to move their stone from Greenport to their Stamford and Bridgeport, CT locations is much less with a combination of (short-distance) truck and barge than with truck alone or rail. Barge transport of bulk materials is ten times as efficient as trucking and almost 4 times as efficient as rail, if you consider only the transportation without consideration of the handling on either end or transfers between modes. As for the handling, the barge method works well for O&G as several of their depots are accessible by barge.

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