The Port of Paulsboro is located on the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

and

Mantua Creek Mantua Creek is a tributary of the Delaware River in Mantua Township, New Jersey, Mantua Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey, Gloucester County, New Jersey. Mantua Creek's headwaters are near Glassboro, New Jersey, Glassboro, flowing northwest f ...

in and around Paulsboro, in

Gloucester County, New Jersey Gloucester County () is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 302,294. Gloucester County is located approximately southeast of Philadelphia and northwest of Atlantic City. I ...

, approximately from the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. Traditionally one of the nation's busiest for

marine transfer operations Marine Transfer Operations are conducted at many ports around the world between tanker ships, barges, and marine terminals. Specifically, once the marine vessel is secure at the dock a loading arm or transfer hose is connected between a valve hea ...

, notably for

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

and

petroleum product Petroleum products are materials derived from crude oil (petroleum) as it is processed in oil refineries. Unlike petrochemicals, which are a collection of well-defined usually pure organic compounds, petroleum products are complex mixtures. The m ...

s, such as

jet fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...

and

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

, it is a

port of entry In general, a port of entry (POE) is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has border security staff and facilities to check passports and visas and to inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. Internati ...

with several facilities within a

foreign trade zone A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to cust ...

. A part of the port is being redeveloped as an adaptable deep water ''omniport'' able to handle a variety of

bulk Bulk can refer to: Industry * Bulk cargo * Bulk liquids * Bulk mail * Bulk material handling * Bulk pack, packaged bulk materials/products * Bulk purchasing * Baking * Bulk fermentation, the period after mixing when dough is left alone to ferm ...

and

break bulk cargo In shipping, break-bulk, breakbulk, or break bulk cargo, also called general cargo, refers to goods that are stowed on board ship in individually counted units. Traditionally, the large numbers of items are recorded on distinct bills of lading ...

, as well as

shipping container A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes. In the context of ...

s. The Paulsboro Marine Terminal, as it is known, is owned by the

South Jersey Port Corporation South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) is an independent public port authority which operates the ports along the eastern banks of Delaware River in the Delaware Valley region of southern New Jersey in the United States. Based in Camden, SJPC was ...

and operated by Holt Logistics. The first ship to call at the port, the ''Doric Warrior'', carrying steel for

NLMK Novolipetsk Steel, or NLMK, is one of the four largest steel companies in Russia. NLMK's share of domestic crude steel production is about 21%. It primarily produces flat steel products, semi-finished steel products and electrical steels. NLMK ...

, arrived March 3, 2017, marking the opening of the new facility. The port could become the site for the production the

monopile A deep foundation is a type of foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a vertical structural element ...

foundations for turbines for the off-shore wind farm

Ocean Wind Ocean Wind is a proposed utility-scale offshore wind farm to be located on the Outer Continental Shelf approximately off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is being developed by Ørsted US Offshore Wind in conjunction with Public Service ...

Location and access

The Port of Paulsboro is one of several in the

Delaware Valley The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation and 68th largest city in the world as of 2020. The toponym Delaware Val ...

metro area and is situated on the east banks of the

, across from

Philadelphia International Airport Philadelphia International Airport is the primary airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The airport served 19.6 million passengers annually in 2021, making it the 21st busiest airport in the United States. The airport is located from t ...

. The site of

Fort Billingsport Fort Billingsport (Fort Billings in some sources), at Billingsport in Paulsboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States, was an American Revolutionary War fort on the Delaware River. The site of the fort is now a public park of the same n ...

was the first land purchase by the United States government, made by the

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...

on July 5, 1776. The port was first developed to handle

s in 1917 by the

Vacuum Oil Company Vacuum Oil Company was an American oil company known for its ''Gargoyle'' 600-W steam cylinder motor oil. After being taken over by the original Standard Oil Company and then becoming independent again, in 1931 Vacuum Oil merged with the Standar ...

. The Port of Paulsboro has been used to refer to the

at Thompson Point in Greenwich Township, Gibbstown ( Greenwich Township), Billingsport,

, Eagle Point in West Deptford Township, and Westville. It is a

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalizati ...

(USCIS) District 21, which covers New Jersey. Tinicum island rear light

Shipping channels and lighthouses

The Delaware River is tidal at Paulsboro, which is about from the Atlantic Ocean at the entrance to the

Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inlan ...

. Since 1942, the Delaware River Main Channel has been maintained at a depth of . A stretch of the federal navigation

shipping channel In physical geography, a channel is a type of landform consisting of the outline of a path of relatively shallow and narrow body of water or of other fluids (e.g., lava), most commonly the confine of a river, river delta or strait. The word is c ...

is being deepened to from the

Port of Camden The Port of Camden is situated on east bank of the Delaware River in Camden and Gloucester City in southern New Jersey. It is one of several ports in the Delaware Valley metro area port complex and is located near the mouth of Newtown Creek oppo ...

and

Port of Philadelphia The Port of Philadelphia is located on the Delaware River in Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Generally the term applies to the publicly owned marine terminals located within Philadelphia city limits along west bank of the river. Th ...

to the bay, with a 2017 projected completion date. Local pilotage is generally required for larger commercial vessels. Anchorage No. 9 is in the vicinity of the mouth of Mantua Creek, to which the river channel is .

Tinicum Island Rear Range Light The Tinicum Island Rear Range Light is a lighthouse located in the Billingsport section of Paulsboro in Gloucester County, New Jersey, the rear of a pair of range lights marking a section of the channel in the Delaware River south of Philade ...

and Tinicum Front Range Light, known as the Billingsport Front Light, are a pair of

range lights Leading lights (also known as range lights in the United States) are a pair of light beacons used in navigation to indicate a safe passage for vessels entering a shallow or dangerous channel; they may also be used for position fixing. At night ...

serving the downstream

reach Reach or REACH may refer to: Companies and organizations * Reach plc, formerly Trinity Mirror, large British newspaper, magazine, and digital publisher * Reach Canada, an NGO in Canada * Reach Limited, an Asia Pacific cable network company * ...

of the port. These front and rear range lighthouses guide sailors who, by aligning the two lights and keeping one light on top of the other, stay in the channel's center and avoid

Little Tinicum Island William Penn State Forest is a Pennsylvania State Forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #17. The main offices are located in Elverson in Chester County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The forest is named for William Penn, the ...

. The rear light is listed on the state and federal registers of historic places.

Road and rail

The port is located near

New Jersey Route 44 Route 44 is a state highway located in Gloucester County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It runs from Barker Avenue in Bridgeport to a cul-de-sac at a ramp from southbound Interstate 295 (I-295) and U.S. Route 130 (US 130) in Thorofare. The ...

and Interstate 295. Rail service on different spurs of the

Penns Grove Secondary Penns Grove Secondary is a rail freight line in the Delaware Valley in the southwestern part of New Jersey. Part of Conrail's South Jersey/Philadelphia Shared Assets it runs for approximately between its it southern terminus at Penns Grove a ...

is within the

South Jersey/Philadelphia Shared Assets Area Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail (reporting mark CRCX), an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Areas ...

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

, which operates a

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...

along the line for owners

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

and

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

SMS Rail Lines SMS Rail Lines is a shortline railroad based at Pureland Industrial Park in Bridgeport, New Jersey. The company handles all freight car delivery to businesses located within the industrial park. It also operates lines in Morrisville, Pennsylvan ...

handle transfers at parts of the port.

Petroleum

As of 2010,

accounted for more than half of all annual cargo tonnage on the Delaware River. Several refineries and

oil depot An oil terminal (also called a tank farm, tankfarm, oil installation or oil depot) is an industrial facility for the storage of oil, petroleum and petrochemical products, and from which these products are transported to end users or other stora ...

s in Paulsboro, Greenwich Township, and West Deptford Township have operated at the port since the first was developed in 1917. At various times,

Citgo Citgo Petroleum Corporation (or Citgo, stylized as CITGO) is a United States–based refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. Headquartered in the Energy Corridor area o ...

Mobil Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999. ...

, BP,

Sun Oil Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that is a wholesale distributor of motor fuels. It distributes fuel to more than 5,500 Sunoco-branded gas stations, ...

, Valero,

PBF Energy PBF Energy Inc. is a petroleum refiner and supplier (Downstream (petroleum industry), Downstream operator) of unbranded transportation fuels, heating oils, lubricants, petrochemical feedstocks, and other petroleum products. Headquartered in Parsi ...

, and

NuStar Energy NuStar Energy L.P. is a publicly traded master limited partnership. The company is one of the largest independent liquids terminal and pipeline operators in the nation. NuStar owns 8,700 miles of pipeline and 79 terminal and storage facilities tha ...

have maintained facilities adjacent to the port, as has

General American Transportation Corporation GATX Corporation is a railcar lessor that owns fleets in North America, Europe, and Asia. In addition, jointly with Rolls-Royce Limited, it owns one of the largest aircraft spare engine lease portfolios. It is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ...

(GATX). In addition to maritime transfer operations, the petroleum facilities are also served by

tanker truck Tanker may refer to: Transportation * Tanker, a tank crewman (US) * Tanker (ship), a ship designed to carry bulk liquids ** Chemical tanker, a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk ** Oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanke ...

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

, and pipelines, including one to the

Philadelphia Airport Philadelphia International Airport is the primary airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The airport served 19.6 million passengers annually in 2021, making it the 21st busiest airport in the United States. The airport is located from t ...

across the river and one to nearby junction with the

Colonial Pipeline The Colonial Pipeline is the largest pipeline system for refined oil products in the U.S.Gibbstown (Greenwich Township) and processes medium-to-heavy

sour crude oil Sour crude oil is crude oil containing a high amount of the impurity sulfur. It is common to find crude oil containing some impurities. When the total sulfur level in the oil is more than 0.5% (by weight), the oil is called "sour". The impurities n ...

s to produce unbranded gasoline, heating oil, and jet fuel. It is one of only two facilities on the East Coast able to process

petroleum coke Petroleum coke, abbreviated coke or petcoke, is a final carbon-rich solid material that derives from oil refining, and is one type of the group of fuels referred to as cokes. Petcoke is the coke that, in particular, derives from a final cracki ...

. It became a Special Purpose Subzone 142A of

Foreign Trade Zone A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to cust ...

(FTZ) No. 142 in 1995. In 1998,

Valero Energy Corporation Valero Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products, and power. It is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Throughout the United States and Can ...

purchased the facility from Mobil and in 2010 sold it to PBF with backing from

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate b ...

and

First Reserve Corporation First Reserve Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts and growth capital investments in the energy sector. First Reserve was founded in 1984 and is the oldest and largest private equity fund dedicated to investments ...

. Construction of a new tanker berth was completed in 2010 by

Weeks Marine Weeks Marine is a marine construction and dredging contractor based in Cranford, NJ. It was founded by Francis Weeks and his son Richard B. Weeks in 1919 as the Weeks Stevedoring Company. Company Weeks has three key divisions—Construction, D ...

. In 2019, PDF received special permission to receive liquified natural gas to the plant via rail. The Eagle Point Refinery in West Deptford Township was a oil refinery that had once been a tomato-processing factory and became a U.S. Army munitions depot during World Wars I and II. The property was acquired by

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Indepe ...

and began refining operations in 1949. It was purchased by Coastal Oil in May 1985 and in 1997 became foreign trade Special Purpose Subzone 142C. In January 2004, it was bought by

Sunoco Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that is a wholesale distributor of motor fuels. It distributes fuel to more than 5,500 Sunoco-branded gas stations, ...

, which announced its permanent closure in 2010. The plant is being disassembled by 2015 so that a new facility can be planned by Sunoco. Its adjacent tank farm, with tanker truck, rail, pipeline, and marine transfer operations, remain active. The Paulsboro Terminal started as an

during World War I. In 1929, Patterson Oil further developed the property as an oil storage and fueling terminal. Eastern Gas & Fuels took over in 1954 and completed the terminal expansion. It sold the terminal in 1960 to Sinclair Refining Corporation. In 1969, after Sinclair and

Atlantic Richfield Company ARCO ( ) is a brand of gasoline stations currently owned by Marathon Petroleum after BP sold its rights. BP commercializes the brand in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States an ...

merged, BP bought the property. The facility stopped operations in 1996 and is being redeveloped as part of the new omniport. The

Asphalt Refining Company (CARCO)

refinery on the east side of

was purchased by

in 2007. It became foreign trade Special Purpose Subzone 142B in 1996. NuStar also owned a small

tank farm Tank Farm (sometimes Tuff Crater) is the name of a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand, near the approaches to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Geology Part of the Auckland volcanic field, it was crea ...

with a truck transport terminal in Billingsport. In 2008 NuStar sold half its business to Lindsay Goldberg, which bought the company outright in February 2014, renaming it Axeon Specialty Products. The asphalt refinery, ranked as America's largest, was scheduled to close in 2017. The Plains Terminal is a petroleum products storage and marine transfer facility in Billingsport which expanded its tank farm with eight new storage tanks in 2009. It has been owned by

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

, GATX Terminals Corporation, which was taken over by

Kinder Morgan Kinder Morgan, Inc. is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America. The company specializes in owning and controlling oil and gas pipelines and terminals. Kinder Morgan owns an interest in or operates approximately of ...

, and by Support Terminals Operating Partnership (a NuStar subsidiary). In 2012,

Plains All American Pipeline Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. is a master limited partnership engaged in pipeline transport, marketing, and storage of liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum in the United States and Canada. It owns interests in of pipelines, storage capacity ...

and previous owners settled with NJ DEP to remediate hazardous substances in the soil at the site. It has been part of a foreign trade Special Purpose Subzone 142A since 1995. In 2019, the

New Jersey Attorney General The attorney general of New Jersey is a member of the executive cabinet of the state and oversees the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, Department of Law and Public Safety. The office is appointed by the governor of New Jersey, confir ...

announced it would sue ExxonMobil for releasing toxic waste into Mantua Creek.

Tanker oil spills

On November 26, 2004, of crude oil spilled from the Cyprus-flagged

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...

''Athos 1'', which was preparing to dock at the Citgo asphalt refinery, after its hull had been punctured by a submerged, discarded anchor.

was cleared of liability in 2011. The

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...

has had lasting impact on the

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

. In October 2007, another spill took place at the port when approximately of oil leaked from the ''Tigani'', an Malta-flagged tanker operated by Cardiff Marine.

Solar array

When opened in 2003 by BP on a landfill on the

Dow Chemical The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three largest chemical producers in the world. Dow manufactures plastics ...

brownfield In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

site, the

photovoltaic system A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and co ...

, or solar array, which is adjacent to the former BP Paulsboro Terminal, was the largest facility for

solar power in New Jersey New Jersey has over 4,100 MW of install solar power capacity as of mid-2022, which provides 6.7% of the state's electricity consumption. The's state's growth of solar power is aided by a renewable portfolio standard that requires that 22.5% of Ne ...

and one of the largest on the

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

. BP constructed the

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...

facility, which was designed for 276

kilowatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

peak demand and 350,000 kilowatt-hours per year, to showcase the potential for brownfield to brightfield redevelopment.

Paulsboro Marine Terminal

The

(SJPC) operates three terminals at the

and one at the

Port of Salem The Port of Salem is a shallow-draft (16 feet) port in the vicinity of the Salem River Cut-Off on the Salem River in Salem, New Jersey in the United States about east of the Delaware River and about from the Atlantic Ocean. It was re-designate ...

. The agency is working with Gloucester County Improvement Authority (GCIA) to develop a deep water omniport at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

of the

and

. Estimated to cost $274 million, construction began in the fall of 2009 for the marine terminal on

sites at of a former BP

and

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...

storage facility and of a former

chemical plant A chemical plant is an industrial process plant that manufactures (or otherwise processes) chemicals, usually on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological transform ...

. The Paulsboro Marine Terminal will include an

industrial park An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

and is designed to integrate changing needs for industrial manufacturing, value-added processing, and distribution space, and to provide complete

intermodal freight transport Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (e.g., rail, ship, aircraft, and truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing ...

capabilities. The terminal will handle a diversity of

and

, as well as

shipping containers A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes. In the context of ...

. New infrastructure includes a

wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

, warehouse space, sewers with storm water retention, roadway access, and rail infrastructure. It will include facility connections to the adjacent

facility. Originally scheduled to be opened in 2012, it was later postponed to 2013. Infrastructure construction work is being completed in phases and installation of the terminal facilities has been delayed further by a lack of commercial clients. The SJPC has preliminary Memoranda of Understanding with a number of companies.

Dole Food Company Dole plc (previously named Dole Food Company, Standard Fruit Company) is an Irish agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company is among the world's largest producers of fruit and vegetables, operating wit ...

considered relocating import operations, but in August 2013 decided to remain at the

Port of Wilmington (Delaware) The Port of Wilmington (formerly Wilmington Marine Terminal) is a deep-water port located at the confluence of the Christina River and the Delaware River in Wilmington, Delaware, from the Atlantic Ocean. The port has been ranked as the top North ...

. In July 2014, SJPC and Holt Logistics announced that the company would possibly move some of their operations to Paulsboro as part of land exchange deal in the

. The first tenant, NMLK Steel, will occupy approximately 40 acres of the port to bring steel slabs and

transload Transloading, also known as cross-docking, is the process of transferring a shipment from one mode of transportation to another. It is most commonly employed when one mode cannot be used for the entire trip, such as when goods must be shipped in ...

them onto rail cars for distribution throughout the country. Wind turbine (xndr)

Wind power logistics center

The port is a manufacturing/assembly center for

wind turbines A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

for the development of

wind power in New Jersey Wind power in New Jersey is in the early stages of development. As of 2022, New Jersey has just six wind turbines, but the state has plans to develop several major offshore wind projects on the continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean off the south ...

and other

offshore wind power Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of c ...

projects along the

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...

. In August 2010, legislation to encourage the development of

was signed by

New Jersey Governor The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official res ...

Chris Christie Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, lobbyist, and former federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. Christie, who was born in Ne ...

at the Port of Paulsboro. The ''Offshore Wind Economic Development Act'' authorized

New Jersey Economic Development Authority The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) is an independent government entity in the U.S. state of New Jersey dedicated to broadening and expanding the state's economic base. The EDA creates public-private partnerships to provide access ...

to provide up to $100 million in tax credits for wind energy facilities. Studies completed in 2012 concluded that the port is well suited to become a center for the manufacture, assembly, and transport of

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

s to be used to further the development of

Atlantic Wind Connection Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) was a proposed electrical transmission backbone by Trans-Elect Development Company that could be constructed off the East Coast of the United States to service off-shore wind farms. Google Energy, the investment fi ...

. The port is the site for the production the enormous

foundations for turbines for the off-shore wind farm

Dredging

Site surveys for the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) permit to build the project were performed by

CH2M Hill CH2M, earlier CH2M Hill, was an engineering company that provided consulting, design, construction, and operations services for corporations and governments. The company was organized in Corvallis, Oregon, and headquartered at 9191 South Jamai ...

. In 2011, USACE authorized additional

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

of a area at the

to in the river and in the creek to provide deep water berths and obtain dredge fill for the omniport. The terminal site has been raised by up to with of

dredge Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

fill from the river and creek in order to be above the 100-year

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

and potential for sea-level rise due to

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

caused by

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

Docks

Planned dock capacity would allow for a long

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

mooring A mooring is any permanent structure to which a vessel may be secured. Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, and mooring buoys. A ship is secured to a mooring to forestall free movement of the ship on the water. An ''anc ...

and of deep water berths of at

Mean Low Water A chart datum is the water level surface serving as origin of depths displayed on a nautical chart. A chart datum is generally derived from some tidal phase, in which case it is also known as a tidal datum. Common chart datums are ''lowest astr ...

(MLW) that would also accommodate three

Handymax Handymax and Supramax are naval architecture terms for the larger bulk carriers in the Handysize class. Handysize class consists of Supramax (50,000 to 60,000 DWT), Handymax (40,000 to 50,000 DWT), and Handy (<40,000 DWT). The ships are used for ...

size vessels. Construction of bulkheads is designed to protect

submerged aquatic vegetation Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (seawater, saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a pl ...

. The final wharf construction, which had been previously bid by three companies in 2012, may be delayed until 2016, pending signed

lease agreement A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

s by South Jersey Port Corporation with companies that will use the port. Shippers and industrial companies can require a different range of wharf specifications, depending on the finished goods, materials, and commodities they handle.

Access road to I-295

Traditionally, access to various port facilities west of

has been via

over a historic

vertical lift bridge A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and swin ...

at mile point 1.7 built in 1935 and locally known as the ''Gateway to Paulsboro''. Owned and operated by the

New Jersey Department of Transportation The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transportat ...

(NJDOT), it was last significantly renovated in 1986–1988. A portion of the road that would later be designated Interstate 295 was opened in 1948. The Gloucester County Improvement Authority is building a new connector, which is funded by the

and is expected to be completed by 2014, that would create a gateway from I-295 to the new marine terminal. It includes a new access road and overpass bridge over the creek from Paradise Road in West Deptford Township between the Gloucester County

sewage treatment plant Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...

and the

asphalt refinery. Paradise Road, which changes to Mantua Creek Road, provides direct access to Exit 19 of I-295. This new routing through West Deptford would avoid heavy truck traffic through residential areas of Paulsboro.

Rail infrastructure

The port is located within

handles

interchanges Interchange may refer to: Transport * Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways * Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies * Interchange station, a rai ...

with the

line. New infrastructure at the omniport includes the construction of a

rail crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

, turnouts, and of track with a

balloon loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

for dockside accessibility. It is expected to cost $3.2 million and be completed by 2014. Partial federal funding for this work was obtained in 2011 by SJPC, Conrail, and

Salem County Salem County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its western boundary is formed by the Delaware River and its eastern terminus is the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which connects the county with New Castle, Delaware. Its cou ...

by leveraging $117.65 million of infrastructure funding for the marine terminal and other

South Jersey South Jersey comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey located between the lower Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. The designation of South Jersey with a distinct toponym is a colloquialism rather than an administrative ...

projects. They include upgrading the southern section of the

Salem Branch The Salem Branch is a rail freight line in the southwestern part of New Jersey in the United States between the Port of Salem and Woodbury Junction where it and the Penns Grove Secondary converge with the Vineland Secondary, approximately sout ...

rail freight line from Swedesboro to the

and retrofitting of the

Delair Bridge The Delair Bridge (officially the Delair Memorial Railroad Bridge) is a railroad bridge with a vertical-lift section that crosses the Delaware River between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, just south of the Betsy ...

, the most downstream rail crossing of the Delaware and the regional connection to the national rail network, to accommodate industry standard, capacity rail cars.

Jefferson Street Bridge

The Jefferson Street Bridge is a railroad

movable bridge A moveable bridge, or movable bridge, is a bridge that moves to allow passage for boats or barges. In American English, the term is synonymous with , and the latter is the common term, but drawbridge can be limited to the narrower, historical d ...

over

upstream from its mouth. The "A-Frame", shear pole,

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

was originally constructed in 1917 and rebuilt in 1940. Once part of

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines was a railroad that operated in South Jersey in the 20th century. It was created in 1933 as a joint consolidation venture between two competing railroads in the region: the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Rea ...

(PRSL), it is now part of Conrail's Penns Grove Secondary. Originally manually opened, it was partially automated sometime between 2000 and 2003. Buckling of the bridge caused a

derailment In rail transport, a derailment occurs when a rail vehicle such as a train comes off its rails. Although many derailments are minor, all result in temporary disruption of the proper operation of the railway system and they are a potentially ...

of a

coal train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...

in 2009. More than 15 rail cars left the tracks, though none toppled. In November 2012, seven cars derailed while crossing the bridge. Of the four cars that fell into the creek, one was punctured, releasing of highly toxic

vinyl chloride Vinyl chloride is an organochloride with the formula H2C=CHCl. It is also called vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) or chloroethene. This colorless compound is an important industrial chemical chiefly used to produce the polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC ...

, which required an evacuation in the region and Paulsboro school lock-downs. Removal of derailed cars and environmental cleanup was handled by

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...

. In March 2013, Conrail announced that the bridge would be replaced with an expected September 2014 operational date. Normally, between March 1 and November 30 the bridge is left in the open position for maritime traffic and closed when trains approach. It will remain locked in the closed position until the bridge is replaced. The new bridge opened in March 2015. Numerous lawsuits have been brought in the matter.

References

External links

Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission - Site Search
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*
Panoramio images of locations around Port of PaulsboroPhilly Freight Finder
DVRPC * *{{cite web, url=https://www.ustradenumbers.com/ports/port/port-of-paulsboro-nj/, title=Port of Paulsboro, NJ – US TradeNumbers, access-date=24 January 2017, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202085310/https://www.ustradenumbers.com/ports/port/port-of-paulsboro-nj/, archive-date=2 February 2017, url-status=dead South Jersey Port Corporation Transportation in Gloucester County, New Jersey Bodies of water of Gloucester County, New Jersey Oil refineries in the United States Economy of New Jersey Delaware River Ports and harbors of New Jersey Water transportation in New Jersey Energy infrastructure in New Jersey Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in the United States Wind power in New Jersey Delaware Valley River ports of the United States Petroleum infrastructure in the United States Foreign trade zones of the United States 1917 establishments in New Jersey Paulsboro, New Jersey