Truckers Face Delays as Security Remains Tight in N.Y., Washington

(Click here for information from American Trucking Associations' Highway Watch Program.)

Delayed and canceled trips were the norm for trucking and delivery drivers and their customers around New York on Monday as new traffic restrictions and increased inspections were implemented due to terrorist threats, news services reported.

Trucking officials said many of the problems were caused by the closing of the Holland Tunnel, Williamsburg Bridge and Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to commercial traffic, the Bergen, N.J., Record reported. Although tractor-trailers were banned after the Sept. 11 attacks, the new rules stopped any commercial traffic entering the tunnel.

Robert Kortenhaus, president of Bilkays Express, a shipping company in Elizabeth, N.J., told the Bergen Record the company's running time from Elizabeth to New York increased by an hour to two hours and 15 minutes.

However, traffic experts said enough commuters on vacation or avoided rush hour on Monday so the congestion was not as bad as it could have been even though some companies said Monday's crackdown was even more intense than in the months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Newsday reported.

In Washington, nearly all motorists approaching Capitol Hill experienced delays on Tuesday because of closed roads and security checkpoints instituted overnight, the Washington Post reported.

raffic was slowed as well near the World Bank and IMF buildings, where some streets have been closed. Commercial vehicles near the area were being inspected, the Post said.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge on Sunday raised the terror threat level for financial institutions in New York, Washington, D.C., and Newark, N.J., to orange, or high alert, the second highest level on the government's five-point system.

Ridge said terrorists using truck loaded with explosives could be targeting the Citigroup Center building and the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark.

(Click here for previous coverage.)

11752