Plans Advance for Downtown Delivery by Water and Bicycle
The City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and Department of Transportation (DOT) have released an update for their plans to move delivery truck traffic off Manhattan streets and onto adjacent waterways. The Blue Highways Action Plan, released on October 31, details a timeline for launching three pilot programs, two of them local: at Pier 11 on the East River waterfront (with the operation eventually moving south to the Downtown Skyport, as the helicopter-landing facility on South Street is now known), and a connection from Red Hook across Buttermilk Channel to Governors Island.
Currently, about 90 percent of the City’s goods are moved into and around New York by truck, which intensifies traffic congestion, increases pollution, and harms the quality of life in residential communities. Moreover, diesel vehicles are responsible for roughly half of tailpipe emissions in New York City, while representing a much smaller fraction of total vehicle activity. Taking delivery trucks off the road and replacing them with boats and “last mile” conveyances, such as commercial cargo bikes, is expected to reduce street traffic, improve air quality, and mitigate noise. The plan requires creating new dockside facilities at which cargo boats can tie up and offload goods for “hyper-local” delivery.
“Lower and Midtown Manhattan have the greatest demand for last-mile delivery, due to residential and commercial density, as well as roadway congestion that allows for faster movement via commercial cargo bike,” the Action Plan notes.
Pier 11, the site of an existing ferry terminal (located just south of Wall Street), “is a feasible, currently ready pilot landing that can be used to test the route to Downtown Skyport while the landing is under construction,” the analysis continues.
The plan envisions launching freight service via the East River between the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center in the Bronx (one of the largest such logistics hubs in the world) to Pier 11 by the fourth quarter of 2026, and then transferring this distribution point to the Downtown Skyport by the end of 2027, after the reconstruction of the latter facility is complete.
The rebuilt Downtown Skyport will include “maritime freight-berthing infrastructure to receive vessels for electric cargo bikes to perform last-mile deliveries into Lower Manhattan. This Blue Highways microfreight landing will be the first publicly developed, built-for-purpose landing,” the Action Plan projects.
“The conceptual plan is to use a vessel with refrigeration capabilities, with goods transloaded to cargo bikes in Lower Manhattan for distribution to their final destination,” EDC notes. For example, commercial cargo bikes will transport fresh fish to participating restaurants that currently receive fish by truck from Hunts Point.
For Governors Island, the Blue Highways initiative has developed a pilot route from the Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Red Hook to the island’s Yankee Pier, bringing freight to food service providers and other retailers via ferry and cargo bike.
The third Blue Highways pilot program involves a seven-minute route across the Hudson River from Weehawken to Pier 79. Here, EDC and DOT note “the value in a seven-minute trip across the Hudson River to avoid the congestion on the George Washington Bridge or through the Holland Tunnel.”
“New York City’s strategically positioned port and vast network of waterways have supported trade, commerce, and connection for centuries—and they point the way toward the city’s future success,” the Action Plan concludes. “With cleaner waters, renewed investment in waterfront resiliency, and growing recognition of the need for low-carbon freight solutions, New York now stands at an inflection point. The city has an opportunity to reestablish maritime freight movement as a core component of its modern logistics network.”