Going Coastal

Officials are currently breaking ground on a new cement terminal on the waterfront in Elm Park.

Staten Island Terminal LLC will be the state’s largest cement and aggregate deep water import terminal. Located at 2541 Richmond Terrace, the new facility will employ 72 jobs during construction of the facility and 125 people will work there permanently once its operational.

A new pier will accept ship deliveries of powdered cement. Each ship could bring in about 40,000 tons of cement. The cement would be distributed to Readi-Mix concrete companies throughout the area for use in construction projects.

Currently, the terminal trucks in its supplies of cement, made partly from crushed limestone, from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

Senator Charles Schumer, state Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) and Borough President James Molinaro are on hand for the groundbreaking.

Touted as an eco-friendly jobs-producer that will bring revenue to the state and boost the local economy, the groundbreaking of an import terminal was announced yesterday in Elm Park, heralded as the largest facility of its kind in New York that will allow for the importation and distribution of cement to the region and be a boon for the construction industry.

Standing on the industrial waterfront in Elm Park, boosters said the facility — with work expected to begin next month and completed in two years — will permit cement from Peru, currently transported to New York City construction sites via trucks from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, to be shipped here from South America through deep-water channels along Richmond Terrace.

Richard Sabatini, president of Staten Island Terminal LLC, credited a private-public partnership with bringing it to fruition. He said the intervention of U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, state Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) and Borough President James Molinaro, expedited the permitting process after a holdup of more than three years through 14 separate agencies. Most recently, Schumer went to bat for the project with the Army Corps of Engineers, which finally OK’d dredging to allow for construction of the pier for ships carrying cement to the dock.

All three officials were present yesterday, hailing the creation of an estimated 72 construction jobs and, once operational, 125 permanent positions. Ms. Savino and Sabatini said they expected the bulk of the jobs to go to Staten Islanders.

Schumer said the terminal could inject as much as $60 million annually into the state’s economy.

Ms. Savino and Molinaro said the terminal also would drastically curtail truck travel over local roads and bridges, thereby reducing congestion and harmful emissions.

Company officials said the facility, a $50 million investment, will provide a guaranteed supply of cement to the market through a private partnership with Cementos Lima, one of the largest cement plants in the Americas. They estimated the terminal could receive shipments of up to 37,000 metric tons of cement, store up to 50,000 metric tons and deliver up to 800,000 metric tons annually to the ready-mix concrete market in the metropolitan area.

“This is a big win for Staten Island,” said Schumer, “creating new jobs during a tough economy, investing in infrastructure, environmental benefits, reduced traffic and eased transportation costs for building trades. … This is a model for what should be happening all over the country.”

By JUDY L. RANDALL

Staten Island Advance