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Ground broken for Paulsboro port

Construction is to begin on the Delaware’s first new port in decades. It will mean new life, too, for the riverside town.

Joseph Balzano, executive director of the South Jersey Port Corp., on the Delaware River quay where the new Paulsboro Marine Terminal will be built.
Joseph Balzano, executive director of the South Jersey Port Corp., on the Delaware River quay where the new Paulsboro Marine Terminal will be built.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

The sun shone brightly yesterday on Paulsboro, a small town of 6,000 on the Delaware River that has seen better days.

Officials broke ground on a 190-acre port on the river, directly across from Philadelphia International Airport, that is projected to create up to 2,500 jobs.

The state of New Jersey is providing $250 million toward the construction of the port, which will open with two ship berths in 2012, and a third and possibly fourth berth to come later.

It is the first new port on the Delaware River in 35 or 40 years, Paulsboro mayor and state Assemblyman John Burzichelli said.

"It's going to be a major shot in the arm" to a town whose heyday was probably 1951, the mayor said.

Paulsboro fell on hard times, first when Route 295 diverted traffic from the downtown. Then came the shopping malls, like Deptford, which helped kill the mom and pop stores.

The port will be built on 130 acres that had been the BP Oil Paulsboro Terminal, and 60 acres that was Dow Chemical's former Essex Chemical plant.

Three people were credited yesterday with making it happen:

Paulsboro's mayor; State Senate Majority Leader Stephen M. Sweeney, a Gloucester County Freeholder director, and Joseph Balzano, chief executive of the South Jersey Port Corp., whose own waterfront career has spanned 59 years in Camden.

Gov. Corzine, on hand for the ceremonial groundbreaking, was praised for backing port development - not to mention coming up with the money.

BP made the property available to Paulsboro and developer South Jersey Port Corp. for $1 under a 99-year lease.

Tom Holt Jr., head of Holt Logistics, which runs the Packer Avenue Terminal in South Philadelphia and owns the Gloucester Terminal south of Camden, said he welcomed the new terminal.

"Any type of port development is good from our perspective," said Holt, who came to Paulsboro with his sons, Eric and Tom 3d. "We already have cargoes lined up to come to Paulsboro."

James McDermott Jr., executive director of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, said, "We welcome any opportunity that develops the port on either side of the river. Paulsboro represents additional union jobs and business opportunities."

The Paulsboro terminal will handle smaller ships carrying bulk and break-bulk cargo, rather than large container cargo ships.

The Philadelphia port sees its future growth in new container cargoes, McDermott said. "It is not going to be competitive. There's enough break-bulk cargo to go around for everyone."

Break-bulk cargo - such as plywood, steel coils, fruit, and cocoa beans - is packaged in smaller crates or pallets, and not shipped in 20- or 40-foot containers.

South Jersey Port Corp. has pledged to give job preference to people living near the new facility, if qualified. "It's all about jobs," Balzano told the crowd. "You don't know how happy we are to turn this into a viable port."

Crews will begin filling in the site with soil the first of October. The port's final design and environmental approvals will be completed in the next six months, officials said.

Port officials have begun talking to potential tenants, including offshore energy companies that deal in large turbines for power plants.

The port is at a bend in the river, currently 37 feet deep and it will be dredged to 40 feet.

Speaking of dredging, none of the speakers mentioned the long-delayed Delaware River ship channel deepening project, including Corzine, who opposed it for years.

Perhaps that's because deepening the river - adding five additional feet to the main channel's current 40 feet - will not directly impact Paulsboro.

Paulsboro, like the Camden terminals 12 miles north, will handle cargoes that require smaller vessels, where 40 feet of water is sufficient.

Corzine fought deepening the Delaware because some of the dredged material was to be dumped in New Jersey.

In 2007, he reached an agreement with Gov. Rendell. New Jersey dropped its opposition, and, in return, Pennsylvania became the project's non-federal sponsor with the Army Corps of Engineers. Pennsylvania also agreed that the dredged "spoils" would not be dumped in South Jersey.

So, as shovels were lifted yesterday to begin the new port, it was all smiles and harmony.

"We've been touting this for a long time," said Gloucester County Freeholder Deputy Director Robert Damminger. "The clock has come full circle. The sun is going to shine on Paulsboro forever."