CAPITAL DISTRICT TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE
FREIGHT TASK
FORCE
Attendance: Michael Franchini, Albany
County; Jeff Marko, NYSDOT; Ted Thompson, NYSDOT – Region 1; Katherine Forster,
CDTC
Regrets: Chungchin Chen, CDRPC;
Steve Iachetta, Albany County Airport
DOT – The 30-day trial of
tandem trucks on the 787 to access the port was turned down at the Federal
level. DOT is still trying to ask for a Federal
exception in the legislation for this section of the 787. The Thruway is exploring the option of owning
that part of the highway. In regards to
the tandems on Route 5 in Glenville, the legislation is subject to the approval
of the DOT Commissioner. The Port of New
York/New Jersey is looking for satellite storage because its landside storage
areas are constrained. There are two
options in this area - New Baltimore Rest Area on the Thruway and the Port of
Albany. Mr. Thompson attended the
Commercial Vehicle Safety Conference in Saratoga Springs, which had attendees
from both the bus and truck sectors. The
conference provides information on new regulations at both the state and
federal levels.
Albany County – The public hearing for the Albany-Shaker Road project has taken place. Albany County received thirty comments, which they are evaluating. The preferred road design alternative is Alternative 4. The jurisdictional maintenance for this project is the big question. The County and the local municipality are still debating who will own and maintain the new roads. Albany County is also addressing the Tandem lot issue with letters to Senator McNulty and Senator Schumer.
Freight
Task Force Meeting Survey - CDTC staff has put together a one-page survey on proposed meeting
topics and tours. This will help staff
identify what the Task Force is interested in when planning future
meetings. When you receive the survey,
please fill it out and fax it back as soon as possible.
Both
sessions went really well. The second session in Plattsburgh tied the whole
corridor coalition effort together with a roundtable event at the end of the
day that allowed participants to help write a business plan for the coalition's
next steps. There were over one hundred
attendees at each session and the conference committee has received a lot of
positive feedback. The proceedings will
be mailed out soon.
Mr.
Caldwell from the FHWA, spent two days touring the corridor up to Plattsburgh,
with stops along the way in Glens Falls, Saratoga and other places. He was shown what this area is doing in terms
of trade, commerce, shipping and economic development. At a debriefing session, he gave advice on
how to devise a business plan for the trade corridor coalition, and he noted
some of the opportunities of this corridor: education, ITS, historic tourism
and others.
With
the help of Harry Caldwell's tour and the conference we are well on our way to
establishing a formal coalition for this corridor. Some of the next steps for the coalition are
to formalize a business plan; get recognition from the governor; get involvement
from Quebec (MOU) and get the business community to help fund this corridor
coalition. The Federal Grant Proposal
must be in to the NYSDOT by early November, it will go to the Federal level by
the end of November. ITS and multi-state
projects did the best in this program last year. The three projects that the coalition is
supporting are the border crossing facility improvements, the relocation of the
Thruway Tandem Lot and CP Rail vertical clearance improvements. These three projects are being submitted
separately but are jointly supported.
Ted Thompson of DOT is writing the application for the CP Rail project.
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- LOCATION - to be announced.
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The agenda will include: Member Updates, Update on the
NCPD&
- CDTC staff to mail out Freight Task Force Survey regarding meeting topics and tours.