b'2American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comPort of New York/New JerseyNEW YORK building for the futurenowThePortofNewYork/NewJerseyisthebusi- PORTS 2024est port on the East Coast. And with the projects underway to improve port efficiencies, the Port is paving the way to handling even higher volumes. By George Lauriat, AJOTFor the Port of New York/ theJanuary15 th negotiating New Jersey 2024 is a difficultdeadline. Added to this labor year to describe: It has expe- deal uncertainty is the impact rienced the best of times, theon trade should former Presi-worst of times and now enter- dentDonaldTrumpwin ingthefourthquarter,thethePresidentialelectionin most uncertain of times.November. Trump has said if The best of times? In Julyhe is elected he will signifi-of 2024 Port Authority of Newcantly raise tariffs on imports York / New Jersey (PANYNJ)to the US. To avoid the tar-handledover806,000TEUsiffs,importerswilllikely and was the 7 thbusiest monthshifttheirfreightsched-inthePortshistory. Andinulesforwardandtriggeran termsofmonthlycompari- (BUILDINGcontinued on sons, it was the first time thepage 6)Porteclipsed800,000TEUs in the month of July. Overall, thePorthandled5,016,672 TEUs through the first seven months, a 12% increase from the same period in 2023. The performancewasalso16% overthefirstsevenmonths ofpre-COVID2019year. In terms of throughput 2024 was, until October, shaping up as a very good year.and it is likely to still turn out that way. Ofcourse,theworstof timesforanyportiswhen thereisaportshutdown forastrike.OnTuesday, October1 st theInternational Longshoremens Association (ILA) went on strike closing EastCoastandGulfports. Fortunately,onThursday night October 3 rdthe United StatesMaritimeAlliance (USMX)whichrepresents waterfront management inter-ests, and the ILA announced they had agreed to a tentative deal on wages and to extend theirmastercontractuntil January 15 th . In a joint state-ment,theILAandUSMX said, Effective immediately, allcurrentjobactionswill cease, and all work covered bytheMasterContractwill resume.Andwiththatthe USMXandILAagreedto return to the bargaining table to renew talks on outstanding issues like automation. Although the Port Author-ity of New York / New Jersey (PANYNJ)hadbeenprepar-ingforthepossibilityofa strike,nonethelessthereis and was a ripple impact. Even though it was only three-days long in duration around 35,000 TEUs of imports were caught up in the strike with approxi-mately 21,000 of that number in terminals. Remnants of the backlog are likely to be still kicking around at Thanksgiv-ing and the cost is estimated to be around $250 million to $300 million per strike day.Now as the fourth quarter begins and we look ahead to 2025, there is a lot of uncer-tainty beginning with the pos-sibility of a new strike after'