PAULSBORO Wasting no time since a ceremonial groundbreaking was held at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal this past week, crews are already working to prepare the site for construction of the $250 million regional port.

Mayor John Burzichelli confirmed that construction has begun on the project, a significant milestone in something that he said had been many years in the making.

"We're moving to a point where physical, tangible things will be happening," said Burzichelli, who is also a state assemblyman. "There's a lot to do, but we're on course. The potential for this port to be built is as real as it could possibly be, and it can't come fast enough."

Winzinger Incorporated has begun laying the foundation for a port expected to bring thousands of jobs to the area.

The Hainesport-based company, which was awarded a $1,983,949 contract in September, will level the 190-acre port site and fill in depressed areas with up to 150,000 cubic yards of dirt, according to George Strachan, assistant administrator at the Gloucester County Improvement Authority.

"It's site preparation, which is knocking down berms, grubbing, and placing dirt Ð which is clean fill that's actually coming from our landfill," Strachan said. "They're going to be trucking it from South Harrison to our Paulsboro Port."

Strachan said that Winzinger will work behind British Petroleum to fill in areas as BP continues its ongoing site remediation.

"As they clean up an area, we're going behind them and filling in with dirt and preparing the site," Strachan said. "That's the first piece. It will be visible to the area, because there's going to be trucks rolling onto the site."

Simultaneously, design firm CH2M Hill is working on the final design for the port itself. The GCIA awarded a $3,482,790 project management and design contract to the Colorado-based international firm earlier this year, Strachan said.

The GCIA, which is serving as project manager for construction of the regional port, is currently working to gain permits from all of the necessary regulatory agencies, Strachan said.

"Our process is permit-driven," he said. "We're working with the regulatory agencies to address their concerns and work out all the kinks ahead of time, but Ð at the end of the day Ð that's what's impacting our schedule."

The GCIA has been holding ongoing permit meetings with the necessary state and federal agencies involved with permitting at the riverfront site Ð primarily, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Ð to work through any issues that may come up while seeking the permits.

"We've hemmed in, we think, what's expected from us from a regulatory agency standpoint, and we're hoping that it will be a smooth process," he said.

Permitting for construction of the port will likely be finalized by late spring or early summer, Strachan said.

"This year, 2009, we're expecting to be out to bid for a construction manager and have them on board next year, so that when we start construction in, hopefully, the next year, that person will be on board," Strachan said. "For a general construction company for the site, we're expecting to go out to bid ... by the end of next year."

The county agency also plans to request bids for construction of a bridge-like overpass connecting the port directly to I-295 by the end of this year, Strachan said. Those permits were submitted at the same time as the port permits, and the authority is currently working to secure land necessary to the project.

"It's important to note that we actually wanted to do the bridge first, because it's pretty uncomplex compared to, obviously, the whole port project," Strachan said. "And from a staging point, we wanted to build the road and overpass so we could bring materials directly onto the site, bypassing neighborhoods."

The agencies involved with permitting, however, view both the port and the bridge as part as the same project overall and decided that permits could not be obtained separately, Strachan explained.

"We expect to have the bridge permitted in the spring," he said. "We'll go out to bid by the end of the year and start construction in the late spring or early summer of 2010."

GCIA has made a fair market offer on land owned by George Gallenthin, based on appraisals that were performed. The land lies in the path of the road and bridge route that officials had planned to lead directly from I-295 to the port.

Gallenthin took the issue to the state Supreme Court Ð and won Ð when his 63-acre waterfront property, officially deeded to Gallenthin Realty Development, was included in the borough's redevelopment zone in 2003.

"We're going through the good-faith negotiations, and our attorneys are exchanging correspondence at this point," Strachan said.

Freeholder Director Stephen Sweeney pointed out that the port would be developed in the most environmentally friendly manner possible.

"We want to respect the environment with the development of this port," said Sweeney, who is also the state Senate majority leader. "This green idea makes it that much more unique. We're building ports to today's environment and making sure that we don't cause a negative impact on our environment."

That will include the installation of solar panels on buildings and finding the most efficient uses for water and electricity on the site, Sweeney said.

"We're using all the smart technologies that exist now," he said. "And what we're hoping to do is, we're talking to some people that are working on windmills. There's potential for a piece of this to manufacture windmills that are going up in the ocean. We could have maintenance facilities for these windmills on site. There's a lot of positives there."

With this port coming online, Sweeney said that he and other area officials must now turn their attention to developing two other ports in the area.

"We're as serious as can be about this," Sweeney said. "We can build three, be profitable and create more jobs. This isn't make-believe."

For now, though, Sweeney said that kicking off construction for the Port of Paulsboro is a great accomplishment.

"After all the years we've worked on it, I'm still like, ÔPinch me,' " he said. "It's actually started."

For Mayor Burzichelli, the success of the kick-off took more than hard work.

"We were very lucky in the fact that we had the right people and the right place to get this done," Burzichelli said. "If you take any of those people out of the chain, this would not be happening."