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New York in past five years, according to the November record.

It's not completely clear how more and larger ships coming up the Kill would affect the residents of Tugboat Alley, but it's hard to imagine their dozing through it. What is clear is that the increase in trade, both coming and going, will be between Newark Bay and the heartland.

That's where the tracks and the highways and the containers meet. Very much unset- tled, however, is the question of the popu- lations east — New England, Long Island, and the entire City of New York. The roadways to them from Newark Bay already are stalled, and can't take much more.

The cross-harbor rail tunnel proposal killed this summer by Mayor Bloomberg may come back, but if it does and finally goes ahead, it would be ten years or more before moving freight from New Jersey to

Long Island. The congestion of the bridges and tunnels, the automotive fumes, the general wear and tear, are widely described as a crisis right now, today. Add the price of fuel after Katrina, or anything like it, and a question seems to follow: what else besides ferry com- muters could benefit from transport by water around the island city and beyond?

Would more tugs and barges help?

The record describes a tugboat skipper

January, 2006 • MarineNews 23

TUGBOAT ALLEY

Circle 233 on Reader Service Card

So stuck in the mud was the Philip T. Feeney that this crane, trying to lift it, broke off its base. (Photo: Don Sutherland.)

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