Port Authority and New York City transportation officials have agreed to relax west-bound access rules at the Holland Tunnel for two and three axle trucks, likely beginning after the 4^th of July holiday. The agencies said they would also seek to permanently bar tractor-trailers from the tunnel.

The news came at a meeting of the Canal Area Transportation Study, a multi-agency effort to improve traffic and pedestrian flows, and reduce transportation impacts in the Canal Street corridor.

Emergency rules have restricted some truck traffic and single-occupant passenger cars from the tunnel since the September 11 attacks in 2001. Originally, trucks were banned altogether from the Holland Tunnel. Smaller trucks were allowed back in for Manhattan-bound trips during an easing of traffic rules last year. Presently, they are not permitted in the tunnel for west-bound trips.

One problem with the present rules is that trucks that enter Manhattan from New Jersey to do business downtown now have to return via the Lincoln Tunnel, creating more truck mileage within Manhattan. Port Authority officials said they thought that allowing 2- and 3-axle trucks into the west-bound Holland Tunnel would cause about 2,000 trucks to shift from the Lincoln Tunnel during a typical 24-hour weekday period.

The change seems a good compromise between getting back to business as the downtown crisis eases, and the eminently reasonable interest of Canal Street communities to lock in some of the quality of life and environmental gains they saw when the restrictions caused a big drop in truck traffic.

The officials said that a permanent tractor trailer ban may require a change in the status of the tunnel and of Canal Street as a nationally-designated truck route. Changes in the rule that would permit smaller trucks back into the tunnel will likely come in the form of changes in the mayor’s emergency order regarding lower Manhattan after July 4.

Port Authority officials at the meeting estimated that the rush hour carpool rule for passenger cars in effect at the in-bound Holland Tunnel is causing about 1,500 fewer peak car trips there each day. 

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