Albany

These are busy times at the Port of Albany.

Some $49 million worth of improvements are expected to get underway this month, as the port prepares for an influx of shipping, thanks to the widening of the Panama Canal.

And current shipments forced the relocation of the annual Port Industry Day from historic Shed One to a tent in the administration building's parking lot.

"The shed is full of cargo," an official said last week.

It appeared nearly every available space in the secure area was filled with cargo — huge semicircular metal panels awaiting shipment, wind turbine parts, various commodities — and the arrival of a ship carrying wind turbine towers was imminent.

The towers are a first for the port, said General Manager Richard Hendrick.

"We've had the blades and the hubs," he said. "Now we're getting the full package."

The equipment is destined for a Maine wind farm.

The port is seeking additional space for warehouse and distribution buildings.

A new warehouse will be built near the north end of the port, with a "big lift highway" connecting it to a roll-on, roll-off ramp near the south end of the wharf.

Barges carrying turbines and generators from General Electric Co.'s Schenectady plant will use the ramp to unload the equipment, which can then be temporarily stored in the new warehouse, said Tony Vasil, director of business development and marketing at the port.

Vasil describes Albany's role in shipping circles as a "major heavy lift project cargo port," that can handle the oversize pieces of equipment and parts that go into such things as pipelines and electric infrastructure.

But it also handles grain and other commodities. The massive Cargill grain elevator is still the largest in the U.S. east of the Mississippi, he said.

The port, since its opening in 1932, has been a crossroads of sorts.

At the intersection of interstates 87 and 90, the port is within 700 miles — a one-day drive by truck — of 10 of the 30 largest U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas, said Andrew Kennedy, head of the Center for Economic Growth in Albany.

In addition to highway and river access, three major railroads — CSX, Norfolk Southern and Canadian Pacific — also serve the region, as do all the major domestic airlines.

The port was successful in landing a $17.6 million TIGER — for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery — grant, thanks in part to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who visited the port last July.

"GE, Siemens and Cargill have all told us ... they want to use the port more and more," Schumer said at a port news conference.

Among those speaking at Thursday's Port Industry Day was Lauren K. Brand, who oversaw a $1.3 billion national port infrastructure modernization program that included the TIGER funds.

The port also received $4 million in Empire State Development funding and $17 million in state funding, including money from the Department of Transportation.

The remaining funds will come out of the port's own resources, Vasil said.

The port also is looking at acquiring 80 acres adjacent to the Albany side, but is also looking at land acquisition on the east side of the river, possibly in East Greenbush, Vasil said.

While the port has handled everything from Bakken crude and ethanol to molasses, subway car frames and power generation equipment, one recent shipment drew public notice.

That shipment consisted of 18 large tanks headed from China, where they were manufactured, to the Genesee Brewery in Rochester.

After traveling across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal and up the Hudson River, a dozen of the tanks — too large for highways — were transferred to barges at the Port of Albany and shipped via the Erie Canal to Rochester.

Along the canal, they were met by protesters who wondered why the tanks weren't produced domestically.

The six smaller tanks were to be loaded onto trucks at the port and sent by highway.

eanderson@timesunion.com • 518-454-5323