A major rehabilitation and expansion is apparently coming to part of one of the nation’s largest and busiest shipping hubs.

The Port Newark Container Terminal (PNCT), which sits between the New Jersey Turnpike and the Newark Bay in Essex County, will undergo multiple changes now that the Bayonne Bridge has been raised. Nearly all ships traveling across the Atlantic Ocean and the New York Bay towards the port must travel through the narrow Kill Van Kull between Staten Island and Hudson County. However, until recently, many modern larger vessels, sometimes referred to as “mega-ships,” were unable to reach this cargo transportation hub because the Bayonne Bridge over the Kill Van Kull was not tall enough. Now that the Bayonne Bridge Navigational Clearance Project is in its final stages, plans to bring major exchanges to the PNCT are advancing.

According to a legal notice from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), “new truck gate facilities and equipment,” new “customs and security technology,” “new comfort and customer service stations for truckers,” “new back-up power generation facilities,” and “new gantry cranes and straddle carriers” will be installed, and the terminal yard will be expanded by 48 acres. Plus, 34 existing acres of the terminal yard will be renovated, and two current warehouses on the premises were set to be demolished.

PNCT’s website states that the company, which is run by Ports America and Terminal Investment Limited, “will invest $500 million into the expansion before the year 2030,” adding that twice as many containers will be able to move through the terminal once the project is completed.

The NJEDA was scheduled to hear a proposal to issue bonds to PNCT for uses such as financing part of this project during its meeting on October 12th in Downtown Trenton.