Freight Planning

Freight Planning

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) emphasizes the need for the transportation network to support economic development, which South Jersey residents have consistently rated as one of their top priorities for the regional transportation plan. Therefore, a primary goal of SJTPO is to work toward a multimodal transportation network that contributes to the region’s economic development. To this end, SJTPO is working to better integrate freight into its transportation planning process.

SJTPO Freight Planning Efforts

SJTPO participates in a number of freight planning efforts around the state and leads planning efforts in the region as well, such as a major Intermodal study at the Port of Salem. Beginning in 2023, SJTPO will begin developing a Regional Freight Plan. This plan will be informed by a major data analysis effort that concluded in 2022 and will inform future studies and investments and will improve the SJTPO region’s representation in statewide freight planning in the years to come.

Statewide Freight Planning

SJTPO participates in Statewide freight planning efforts. This includes the New Jersey Freight Advisory Committee, which contributes to the New Jersey Statewide Freight Plans (2017 & 2022).  SJTPO also participates in the New Jersey State Rail Plan (2022).

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2022 SJTPO Freight Plan Data Collection and Analysis

Designed to be a precursor to the 2023 Regional Freight Plan, this study collected and analyzed freight data and conducted a data-driven performance-based analysis of the freight network. Data collected or generated included freight trip generators, truck counts, and estimated truck trips for road segments.

Freight highway network analysis included:

• Travel speeds and all truck travel time reliability,
• Origin and destination analysis by TAZs.

Freight impediment analysis included:

• Bridges for under clearance, load rating, and bridge condition,
• Highway railroad crossing for train and truck trips per crossing,
• Safety-created heat map for truck crashes,
• Truck parking-identified parking locations and the number of parking spaces.

Multimodal Analysis included:

• Rail-track inventory, trains trips, and train speeds,
• Air Cargo freight flow,
• Maritime-port locations and commodity flow,
• Last mile multimodal highway connections.

The Final Report includes

• Description of the SJTPO region’s freight landscape, and
• Summary of stakeholder outreach.

2023 SJTPO Freight Plan

The SJTPO Regional Freight Plan (Plan) will build on the 2022 Study and will identify the region’s critical multi-modal freight network locations. It will then analyze these locations for freight mobility, economic impact, and resiliency. The Plan will produce freight project and policy recommendations for these critical freight network locations. The expected deliverables for this project are a comprehensive regional plan that provides project partners (public and private) with a series of short, medium, and long-term, strategies and guidance, for future investments to facilitate multi-modal freight mobility within and through the region.

Planning steps include:

• Review 2022 Study data for network facilities, conditions, performance, and issues
• Identify critical freight network locations
• Analyze these locations for freight mobility, economic impact, and resiliency
• Review key policies and their impact on the freight network
• Recommend best practices in freight mobility efficiency, safety, and technology (ITS)
• Develop a prioritized list of regional needs and solutions
• Identify funding opportunities
• Produce the Regional Freight Plan Final Report

The Final Report will summarize current freight transportation demand, trends, challenges, infrastructure conditions, performance, opportunities, and recommendations.

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Freight Advisory Committee (FAC)

Beginning in 2021, during the Regional Freight Plan Data Collection and Analysis technical study, SJTPO established the Freight Advisory Committee (FAC). The FAC membership includes business and freight professionals from public and private sector, covering multiple freight modes and an economic development perspective. The committee provided stakeholder feedback throughout the data collection and analysis effort. The FAC members will be instrumental in informing the development of the Regional Freight Plan as well as moving forward as the Plan is implemented and as other freight issues are identified, studied, and addressed in the region. Currently, the FAC includes the following organizations. Anyone interested in participating in the FAC should contact Bill Schiavi at bschiavi@sjtpo.org.

• South Jersey Port Corporation 
• South Jersey Economic Development District 
• Northeast Precast
• New Jersey Rail Association
• SMS Rail Lines
• Atlantic Economic Alliance 
• Cumberland County Engineer’s Office

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