With every cloud, there comes a silver lining. With West Coast highways clogged, ports near capacity and railways jammed, the silver lining may be the recession. Strange as it sounds, the recession is giving many organizations the breathing space they need to concentrate on infrastructure improvements that will not only help ease some of the congestion, but allow them to emerge from the recession more competitive than ever.

The Port of Grays Harbor is one small example. By capitalizing on its position as the only deep water port on Washington’s Pacific coast, it has managed to gain new tenants and expand its capabilities despite a recession. In the past year, it has begun auto shipments with the Pasha Group while Ag Processing Inc. (AGP) has expanded its bulk grain shipping facilities. Both use the recently upgraded Puget Sound & Pacific short-line railroad to connect to BNSF and Union Pacific rail lines. The Port of Grays Harbor currently is in the midst of upgrading a ring road to increase the level of service and enhance safety and freight mobility from the port to state highways and the I-5 corridor.

In the same “take lemons and make lemonade” sort of thinking, Con-way Truckload launched a short-haul, regional service in mid-September for shipments of less than 600 miles, and a cartage service for truckload shipments of less than 100 miles. Drayage services are expected to be launched as well. As Herb Schmidt, president of Con-way Truckload points out, “About 70 percent of the freight in the transportation market travels less than 550 miles…and is a segment that stays healthy even during challenging economic conditions.”

Con-way’s short-haul program was piloted in the heartland and is expanding to ensure national coverage by 2011. “Con-way Truckload can provide regional service to customers on the West Coast if they have a current need. As far as an official roll-out to the West Coast, it will be final as of 2011,” according to Billy Cartright, director of business development. 

The Port of Grays Harbor and Con-way both responded swiftly to the economic downturn, but most projects underway today had their genesis a few years earlier. These projects are being completed, but new projects are, for the most part, not emerging. Instead, organizations are concentrating on leveraging the results for an increasingly competitive edge.

Following are highlights of some of the infrastructure projects getting attention west of the Rockies.

Pacific Northwest

Seattle is positioning itself as the green gateway to the U.S., banking on the fact that reduced emissions and a greener footprint will translate into more business by companies needing to polish their own environmental credentials.

 “We’ve had a long term approach to economic recovery and just completed a 10-year, $1.2 billion investment for the Pacific Northwest to take foreign cargo,” says Peter McGraw, Port of Seattle spokesman. “We’re looking far beyond this recession to be competitive.”

The Port of Seattle is touting a report by Herbert Engineering that says shippers as far south as Singapore can cut carbon emissions by shipping to Seattle and transiting by rail to the Midwest and East Coast, instead of shipping to California or through the Panama Canal to reach those same markets. As the U.S. increases its emissions concerns, this data is expected to become ever more important. In the port itself, financial incentives are being used to persuade cargo vessels to use 0.5 percent sulfur diesel while docked. And, working with the Port of Tacoma and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, the Port of Seattle is replacing or retrofitting about 10 percent of its trucks, cranes and forklifts. Under the same program, the Port of Tacoma is retrofitting or replacing about 14 percent of its fleet.

The two ports are working together to build a cohesive regional transportation network that moves people and freight efficiently through the snarl of the I-5 corridor. To ease congestion, Washington is replacing the Alaskan way viaduct with a tunnel underneath the city of Seattle and working with the Port of Seattle on the East Marginal Way grade separation project and the Spokane Street corridor projects.

Last May, the Port of Seattle opened Terminal 30, a $50 million, 70-acre facility that adds two container ship berths. Terminal 30 is operated jointly by China Shipping, Matson and SSA Marine under a 30-year lease signed in 2007. Additionally, Terminal 18 was upgraded to allow use of super post-Panamax cranes, and on-dock rail was extended to Terminals 18 and 5. The remaining terminals can access near-dock intermodal rail within two miles. “We’re working with BNSF and UP to better rail capacity,” McGraw assured.

The recession and subsequent global credit collapse, however, did delay the port’s plans to buy the Eastside Rail corridor from BNSF until at least the end of 2009.

In Portland, a harbor redevelopment effort is aimed at returning under-utilized or vacant industrial sites to full use. Announced this September, the plan calls for getting the first site under development by 2013 to help revitalize the Portland economy.



Airports

About the time Congress authorized the first bailout of the housing market, SeaTac open its third runway. A few months later, in April 2009, reconstruction began on the airport’s longest runway. The 11,901-foot runway began serving jets in September. In July, Icelandic air began serving the airport, becoming the only Scandinavian carrier serving the West Coast.

Likewise, Portland International Airport diverted traffic from its north runway last summer while a renovation was underway. Another diversion is planned next spring, when the runway will be lengthened.



Rail

BNSF has three main lines running east from Washington, according to Gus Melonas, spokesman for that region of BNSF Railways. Of those, the railroad has built a grain staging area at Pasco in eastern Washington, added a siding for the Columbia River Gorge mainline, extended the Vancouver, Washington terminal for accelerated services, and implemented a quick stop fueling facility in Northern Idaho that slashes refueling time from eight hours to 30 minutes.

Southern California

This September, the Port of Los Angeles received a $21 million federal stimulus grant for roadway improvements to ease congestion along the port’s northwest perimeter, improve access to the TraPac container terminal and improve traffic flow. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called this a “down payment on infrastructure improvements” to keep freight moving.

China Shipping is expanding, too. This September, it won approval for a $47.6 million project to construct wharfing and berth space, and pave backland at its terminal. The project will accommodate 1.5 million more TEUs annually and expand the site from 72 acres to 142 acres. When completed, the 2,500 feet of wharves will be served by 10 post-Panamax cranes.

Under that plan, all cargo ships calling at the terminal will be expected to use alternative maritime power by 2010, use low-sulfur fuel within 40 nautical miles of the port and comply completely with the port’s Vessel Speed Reduction Program. On land, it calls for alternative-fueled yard tractors, use of electric rubber-tired gantry cranes, and mandates the use of particulate filters on lower-emission switcher locomotives. The lease on the terminal recently was extended to 2045.

Also at the port, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Los Angeles Harbor Department last summer announced plans to improve APL’s berths there.



Port of Long Beach

“The downturn is giving us a chance to catch up to terminal repairs,” notes Art Wong, assistant director of communications at the Port of Long Beach. That catching up includes consolidating some older terminals, dredging some berths to ensure that all terminals have deep water, and beginning an upgrade of the rail yard at Pier B to reduce road use. “We’re hoping the rail yard upgrade will start by 2011,” he says. “It’s at the beginning of the environmental process now.”

Pier B currently is storage and staging areas for trains, used mainly by Pacific Harbor Line. By increasing the use of on-dock rail, truck traffic is reduced. Existing tracks will be reconfigured and additional tracks added to stage 8,000- to 10,000-foot trains, and to connect the on-dock rail yards with the Alameda Corridor. Roadway flow will be improved by adding grade separations and crossing and realigning Pier B Street. The Port also is seeking additional land for rail car storage and staging.



Rail

In the past 12 years, BNSF has invested $30 billion in infrastructure and locomotives in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. “Last year, we completed 60 miles of a third main track through the Cajon Pass, a major bottleneck on the Los Angeles to Chicago run that typically sees between 100 and 150 trains per day,” according to Sue Lundsberg, BNSF spokesman for that region. In Northern Arizona, there also are plans to double-track the corridor in Abo Canyon, she says.

In September, BNSF received a $27 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant to improve truck efficiency at its Hobart intermodal facility, near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. It is expected to yield a 50 percent improvement in productivity for cargo pick-up and delivery for more than one million trucks, and to remove 580,000 trucks off city streets.

In 2009, BNSF has created 23 new intermodal services and improved transit times on 45 lanes. Additionally, BNSF has installed advanced automated gate systems at its San Bernardino intermodal facilities and at several others in the Midwest. These systems use recorded, remote inspections of trucks and biometric identification of drivers for a much faster turnaround that not only speeds transit time but also reduces emissions from idling diesel engines.

Union Pacific also has a significant presence in West Coast ports. Currently, it is nearly doubling the capacity at its Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF), about five miles from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The improved facility will boost capacity to nearly 1.5 million TEUs annually, but acreage will shrink from 277 to 233 acres. Emissions are also expected to lessen. Union Pacific estimates capital spending for the Los Angeles basin is just more than $60 million for 2009, down slightly from the previous three years, but six times higher than in 2005. wt



Contributing writer Gail Dutton specializes in reporting on the intersection of business and technology.