© 2024 WRVO Public Media
NPR News for Central New York
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

DeWitt location selected for inland port

Tom Magnarelli
/
WRVO News
Overhead map of proposed inland port in DeWitt, provided by 3Gi.

The New York State Department of Transportation has selected an active rail yard in the town of DeWitt as the location for a central New York inland port. This comes after years of waiting for a decision on a few different sites.

The inland port would receive freight by rail from the Port of New York and New Jersey, to be distributed by trucks.

A final reportcommissioned by the state DOT selected the CSX DeWitt Yard. That is the location that 3Gi, a company that owns 200 acres next to the existing freight yard, has been pushing. 3Gi could build warehousing and distribution.

The report said the DeWitt Yard was selected because it was the only site with a commitment for rail service. The state now has to negotiate with CSX railways. CSX would need to provide daily train service for the inland port to be successful. The port could save $500 per shipping container. The number of potential jobs speculated over the years ranged from a few hundred to 2,000. The report said there is no way to know for sure.

The inland port was a $40 million proposal in the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative grant. Council co-chair Rob Simpson pushed to have it located in Camillus because he said it could attract large-scale warehousing and distribution. CSX said it was not interested in providing service to that location. Now, the funding for the inland port will come from the state’s rail infrastructure grants and state officials said it will cost much less than $40 million.

Tom Magnarelli is a reporter covering the central New York and Syracuse area. He joined WRVO as a freelance reporter in 2012 while a student at Syracuse University and was hired full time in 2015. He has reported extensively on politics, education, arts and culture and other issues around central New York.