Brian Nearing reports in the Albany Times Union that the Port of Coeymans wants to make their temporary expansion into Hudson permanent. Four years ago the Port was allowed to temporarily expand to work on the Tappan Zee bridge project. Last week, a "subsidiary of port owner Carver Laraway" asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Conservation for permanent status for a riverfront complex of trestles and cranes. Some of those cranes extend more than 270 feet into the Hudson River from the port. Nearing predicts that approval for the expansion "could make the privately owned port a more direct competitor of the publicly owned Port of Albany, which has been controlled by a state-appointed commission representing Albany and Rensselaer since the 1930s." The large cranes and trestles added four years ago were supposed to be removed, but now, General Counsel George McHugh said Aug. 1, they hope to keep them and lure other business there. Rich Hendrick, general manager of the Port of Albany, said if Laraway's request is approved "it will certainly benefit him ... up here, when I say something is going to be temporary, it stays temporary." Read the full story in the Albany Times Union.