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cargo ship at Conley Terminal
Port of Boston

About

Conley Container Terminal, the only full-service container terminal in New England, is an economic engine supporting 66,000 jobs and $8.2 billion in economic impact while providing global access to 2,500+ importers and exporters annually.  

The Port of Boston was America’s first port, settled in the 1600s, providing commerce and opportunity to the region and the country through waterborne commerce. More than 400 years later, the Port of Boston has reinvented itself as a key gateway for New England and the northeastern United States, connecting the region through commerce, tourism, and access to global markets.

Conley Terminal is owned and operated by Massport, which allows the Port of Boston to offer agility and efficiency without bottlenecks. The Port of Boston is a solution to maintaining schedule reliability on the East Coast, as customers and carriers benefit from 18 vessel start times, 7-day labor availability, 30-minute truck turn times, a near-dock chassis pool, and connectivity to major interstates less than one mile from the gate.

Conley Terminal Yard

The Conley Terminal Modernization Project has been essential in growing the footprint for New England’s only full-service container terminal, solidifying the port’s role as an economic engine for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the New England region. These investments included:

  • The Butler Freight Corridor, a dedicated truck route to keep container trucks off residential roadways and allow trucks to access the highway system in minutes.
  • Two 50-foot-deep berths to accommodate the new cranes and larger ships.
  • Three new ship-to-shore cranes, commissioned in the fall of 2021, have already serviced vessels with published capacity of 15,000 TEUs. The new cranes are fully electric and produce no diesel emissions.
  • The Boston Harbor Deepening project, a multi-year, multi-phase partnership between the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Massport, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, completed in June 2022 to deepen the main ship channel and the reserved channel to -47 feet and the outer harbor to -51 feet.
  • Other terminal improvements, including new rubber-tire gantry (RTG) cranes, expanded container storage, and new refrigerated container storage.
     

NetZero by 2031

Massport has set an ambitious goal of becoming NetZero by 2031, the Authority’s 75th anniversary, and our projects reflect that commitment, ranging from the installation of LED yard lighting to power retrofits of our RTG fleet to reduce the impact of emissions. During the modernization efforts we have kept our NetZero efforts at the core, resulting in several awards.

cranes at conley

Expansion of Service

Conley Terminal has four services calling Boston in 2024. The investments that took place over several years were noticed by the international ocean carrier community, increasing Boston’s global direct connectivity to over 35 ports throughout China, Southeast Asia, North Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Latin America. We have been able to partner with the carriers to take advantage of the new infrastructure improvements by bringing larger vessels, providing access to a market of 15 million consumers with more frequency and reach.

Map of cargo ship destinations

Shaping Boston's Waterfront

Massport owns more than 650 acres of land and water in Boston, not including Boston Logan International Airport, which are located in Charlestown, East Boston, and South Boston. These properties include both maritime uses, such as the Boston Fish Pier and Boston Autoport, and commercial uses, including office, hotel, residential, and restaurant/retail development.

Autoport in Boston

Environmental Stewardship

A port focused on environmental stewardship balances a sustainable outlook with economic demands. Conley Terminal abuts the family-oriented neighborhood of South Boston. Current initiatives include innovations that increase air quality, decrease truck traffic in residential neighborhoods, and create open buffer spaces for those who live and work in the vibrant working port of Boston.

Piers Park with Boston Skyline

Directions to Conley Terminal

Conley Terminal is located on the South Boston waterfront in the Port of Boston. Our address is 700 Summer Street, South Boston, MA 02127.