NYC launches ‘Blue Highways’ water freight test pilot

RED HOOK — NEW YORK CITY has launched a marine-freight pilot between Manhattan’s Pier 79 and the Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Red Hook as an initial foray into its planned Blue Highways program, NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, NYC Economic Development Corporation President Andrew Kimball, NY Waterway and DutchX announced Thursday.

Blue Highways envisions using the city’s waterways for local and regional movement of goods, reducing congestion on roadways and adding resiliency to the supply chain, officials said. Despite New York City’s historic roots as a port, today nearly 90% of goods moving into and through the city travel by truck. The effort builds on the recent passage of the BMT Vision Plan approved by the BMT Task Force in September, the NYCE