 However economic conditions were not favorable to that project, which envisioned 6,700 housing units, and the city needed the cash to balance its budget.The Port Authority planned to develop the property as a container port capable of handling the larger container ships in service after the new, wider Panama Canal opened.Some of these new ships would not fit under the original Bayonne Bridge, preventing them from reaching the large container facilities at Port Newark and Port Elizabeth, however, the roadway on the Bayonne Bridge has been replaced with a higher one, removing that obstacle to shipping.