Katherine Forster, CDTC; Kristina Yonger, CDTA; Dick Corp, NYSTA; Larry Arnold’ UPS; Stephen Iachetta, ACAA; Gerald Duluca, NYSTA; Ted Thompson, NYSDOT – Region 1; Chungchin Chen, CDRPC; Roger Bergeron, GTI

Record of Previous Meeting - The November 14, 2003 meeting was held CDTC offices. Dave Jukins of the CDTC staff filled in for J. Purvis. Minutes???

I-87 Corridor Study

I-87 Corridor Project

T. Thompson gave a general overview of this project. Congressman Sweeney's project is well underway. The Parsons Group is the consulting firm working on the project.

The project is looking at Interstate 87 form the Tappan Zee Bridge to the Canadian border, with specific emphasis on the Capital District area. Community meetings were held in several locations in which ranking questionnaires were provided. There are currently six working groups and five working group sessions, to be held over the next few weeks. In general the administration of the grant has raised several questions among area transportation and planning agencies.

Port of Albany-PIDN

J. Purvis noted that the possible container barge service is still up and growing, although there are few current tenants. T. Thompson noted that there was a dramatic upswing in numbers in December. Inbound/outbound figures surpassed 300. At this time almost all of the cargo is going out by truck freight. T. Thompson noted that GE Silicone is a possible future tenant.

Railroad Abandonment – Green Island/Cohoes and Voorheesville

J. Purvis reported that 1.8 miles of rail in Green Island is proposed for abandonment. CDTC sent comments on behalf of CDTC’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force noting the inclusion of the rail area in CDTC’s Albany County Connections Trail Study.

T. Thompson reported that the lower end of the track is also up for sale. At this time it looks promising that the sale will go through. About two years ago CP Rail cut off service on the line. Two industrial businesses were negatively affected by the closure and are looking forward to the possible sale. CP would remain the operator of the line. T. Thompson noted that a multimodal grant could be used to channel funds to the affected businesses but would require a municipal sponsor.

M. Franchini reported that Albany County has been granted an extension on their attempt to take ownership of the recently abandoned line from Voorheesville to Albany.

New Visions 2030

J. Purvis noted that CDTC is currently in the process of updating New Visions, CDTC’s Long Range Plan. Over the next few months staff will be putting major work into the update. As part of the update John Poorman, CDTC Staff Director has requested an informal product such as a technical memo updating the Freight Task Force’s concerns and goals. Members requested copies of the 1995 document to review. Comments are requested by April 1, 2004

Member Updates/Current Events

NYSDOT – T. Thompson noted that NYSDOT is looking for some locations for permanent weigh stations on I-87.

Tandem trailer movements between NYS Thruway Exit 26 and the Adirondack Beverage headquarters will begin this spring.

T. Thompson announced an upcoming dinner meeting of the Council on Logistics Management to be held at the Century house. Please email Don Nolan at don.nolan@cbre-albany.com for more information.

T. Thompson announced that FedEx ground has absorbed American Freightways and is located on the Rotterdam Industrial Park.

Regarding the new Federal Hours of Service regulations, many trucking firms say they will need more drivers because they simply cannot make the connections under the new restrictions. A grace period is being granted.

T. Thompson noted that a new Greene County Industrial Park will open soon. Save-a-lot has moved their warehouse to this location from Guilderland. According to a developer with the Greene County IDA, there are rumors of more development in the park. Requests for permission to run tandems on Route 9W may be an issue in the future.

NYSDOT increased the vertical clearance at the CP Rail Bridge at Ticonderoga.

T. Thompson reported that he saw a demonstration of new drilling technology that makes the process much easier and more efficient. CP Rail will run double stacks through tunnel.

NYSDOT is improving infrastructure for freight movement.

Due to NYSDOT’s recent success with the closure of Route 7 this past summer, this approach will be employed more by the agency, particularly in the following two projects; Route 4 from Whitehall to the Vermont Line, and Routes 4 and 32 in Waterford.

T. Thompson noted that the Vaccus System is in operation at Rouses Point as part of the I-87 Corridor Freight Safety and Security initiative. The system x-rays items in freight trains between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

T. Thompson noted that the Albany International Airport will be paying for the removal of the existing orange and white water tower in Latham on the east side of I-87. The water tower is a visual obstacle to the Airport’s control tower. The Airport will also pay for construction of a new less obtrusive tower.

SUNY Albany – C. Lawson reported that the Freight Framework Analysis application has become extremely controversial due to poor underlying data. The data has been used by several agencies. The data is from 1993 and there is no way to update the data. Agencies that used this data were basically using 10 year old data. The application is useful for showing freight flows, but too many users took the data too seriously and based research and projections on the data, including the military.

C. Lawson noted that she has submitted an article proposal to ITE on Freight Infomatics on the West Coast regarding data harvesting form trucks.

C. Lawson will be presenting two papers at the Mid-year TRB Conference. She is currently working with Tom Kearny of FHWA on Freight Infomatics and will hopefully have some New York State data to present.

C. Lawson reported that there is no money for a test study on Homeland Security, but the project is moving along.

Louis Berger – R. Ritter noted that the Louis Berger Group will be working with the NY Port Authority on an upcoming goods movement study. The study will look at ways to improve truck revenues that are suffering as a remaining effect from 9/11. Alternate routes have become almost permanent. They will also look at increasing goods movement on I-84 and pricing structures. The Albany office will have some involvement with the study.

Albany County – M. Franchini reported that the Watervliet Shaker Road project from the new alignment to Sand Creek Road including the intersection of WSR and Sand Creek Road will be let in August. Improvements to the intersection will be made.

M. Franchini reported that the County will be completely reconstructing Everett Road from I-90 to Albany Shaker Road. Construction will begin in June. Improvements include turn lanes, and a flush median north of Sand Creek Road. The project is expected to take two and a half years to complete.

M. Franchini noted that he attended the Thruway Albany Corridor Study on Tuesday, February 24^th. The Thruway presented several concepts to improve interchanges from 23 to 25A. The Thruway is looking at a mainline barrier concept and reconstructing (3 lanes) between exits 23 and 24. The Thruway is also encouraging several direct connections to I-87. This concept is controversial among Guilderland residents. In addition the Thruway has three possible locations for a tandem lot; the Port of Albany, a location on Delaware Avenue at the Thruway overpass and a location in the Town of Bethlehem.

Upcoming Events

CDTC Freight Task Force Meeting: May 7^th at 1:30 p.m. at the CDTC Office.

Friday, February 27, 2004, CDTC Office, Colonie, NY