Next busy highway may be 'W-95'

Worried about mounting truck traffic along the highways of the Northeast, transit officials across the region are eyeing an age-old solution: Barges.

Port officials are pushing for a "water highway" of cargo terminals to move freight up and down the East Coast -- a system that could take hundreds of thousands of trucks off congested roads.

A new barge terminal will be built in Bridgeport, Conn. A similar service is being considered in Providence. The state of Massachusetts and the city of Portland, Maine, have launched major efforts to lure more barges, along with other types of cargo traffic, to Fall River, New Bedford, and Gloucester.

"We're calling this W-95," said Mike Leone, director of the Port of Boston. "It reduces air emissions, it gets trucks off the road."

As America increasingly relies on goods manufactured overseas, and with international shipping concentrated in a few large commercial ports, residents of the Northeast pay a price: The region's roads are clogged with trucks carrying foreign-made goods -- whether tennis shoes, electronics, or French wine -- from the docks to their final destination.

Nowhere is the increase in international trade more visible than in the ports of New York and New Jersey, where foreign freight arrives to be sent on trucks throughout the country. The United States is expecting international trade to at least double by 2020. Within six years, analysts estimate, the East Coast's Interstate 95 will have at least 10,000 more trucks per day carrying cargo from international ships.

Eager to relieve the congestion, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has begun funding a new network that would allow ships to unload their cargo onto barges instead of trucks. Five Eastern ports -- Wilmington, Del., Camden, N.J., Albany, N.Y., Bridgeport, and Providence -- are eligible for at least $1 million each in marketing and startup funds that will include a $25 payment for each loaded container processed at the port.

Trucks would then pick up the cargo and deliver it a shorter distance, avoiding choke points such as the George Washington Bridge, where traffic can be held up for hours attempting to get to New England. The Port Authority estimates that within 20 years, this system could eliminate 700,000 truck trips originating out of its main ports. Already, the port of Albany is up and running. Last month, Connecticut dedicated $1.5 million to Bridgeport's terminal.

The coastal freight system, often referred to as "short sea shipping," has met with success in Europe, where high fuel prices and gridlock have helped make ferries and barges an attractive option for shipping companies.

But in the United States, where truck transport is relatively cheap, barges have suffered by comparison. A one-way truck trip from New York to the Boston area costs between $500 and $700. Barge transportation can cost $100 to $150 less, but is usually slower. A truck, even with traffic, takes less than 12 hours to get cargo from New York to Boston. By barge, the trip is 30 hours and still requires a truck on the other end.

"If you're going to move 200 40-foot containers, it's a lot cheaper to do it by barge than use 200 drivers. That's the good news," said Henry Marcus, professor of marine systems at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "But you have certain costs with the barge," such as longshoremen's labor, "and you have extra time involved. That's the trade-off."

The US Maritime Administration suggests the solution could lie in higher-speed coastal ferries or ships, which would cut barge time in half or even a third. The ferries, however, are expensive and not yet used commonly for US freight. Even with questions about the financial attractiveness of barge shipping, cities are eager to develop their ports as cargo terminals to boost local economies.

In Boston, where only one barge now travels to and from New York each week, officials are pushing to become part of the New York barge push to boost the frequency of service. Massport has also succeeded in getting container ships to deliver goods directly from Asia and the Mediterranean. In Portland, port officials are keeping a port facility available in the hope of attracting more cargo.

In many ways, the water cargo concept is reminiscent of a time long before the nation's interstate roadway system, where goods were delivered largely on schooners, other ships, and slow-moving barges. New England's cities sprang up around this trading system, but by the 1960s water-based shipping had largely given way to roads that provided quicker, more direct service. Today, bulk commodities such as oil and wheat are often shipped by barge, but standardized containers that carry most international cargo move through the country by truck or rail.

To help get trucks off the roads, the Massachusetts Seaport Council just gave Fall River $200,000 for final designs for a "short sea" marine terminal, which will be aimed at attracting barge traffic from New York as well as cargo from trucks carrying domestic goods.

While truck traffic from international trade is expected to grow greatly, it still represents only about 10 percent of the nation's truck traffic. "The bottleneck is going to get worse along I-95," said Rick Armstrong, director of port development for Massachusetts and executive secretary for the state's Seaport Advisory Council. "International trade is going to grow, but so is domestic trucking. We need to take advantage of the ocean highways." Beth Daley can be reached by e-mail at bdaley@globe.com.