Driving Infrastructure Improvements and Sustainability at West Coast Ports

It’s hard to forget the West Coast port congestion that occurred during the most madcap months of the coronavirus pandemic. But since then, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have seen smoother sailing, with respect to both infrastructure and community.

At the Port of Long Beach, the US$1.567 billion Pier B on-dock rail support facility project, announced in July, will expand and enhance the facility, streamlining rail operations by adding on-dock rail capacity. The project also aims to eliminate more than 5 million tons of pollution annually.

At the Port of Los Angeles, a $1 billion community development project, featuring  waterfront infrastructure, programmatic activity and more, is slated to open by end 2025.

“On the business side of the Port of Los Angeles, we’ve never been busier, cleaner, safer or more enjoyable to visit than we are today,” said Gene Seroka, the port’s executive director. “Year to date, we’re up 18 percent. … For some underlying reasons, the nation’s economy continues to go beyond expectations.” Consumer spending is up by 1 percent month over month, and thus, ports are feeling the increase, he said.

During the 12th annual Global Supply Chain Excellence Summit, hosted last week by the Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute at University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, Seroka said that cargo shipping is not without tailwinds, like protracted labor negotiations on the East Coast, drought conditions in the Panama Canal, and security issues in the Red Sea. But cargo movement, he said, “is at or better than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The Sustainability Push

More than 200,000 companies rely on the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for their imports and exports every year, Seroka said. More than 9,000 companies provide transportation services. “Forty percent of our nation’s imports come through this gateway. People around the country, from Main Street to Wall Street to my street, depend on us,” he said.

Focusing on community is paramount, he said. There are efforts underway to build the country’s first goods movement training campus at the ports; it will be geared to the ports and transportation network as well as supply chains, he said.

Also important: environmental sustainability efforts. The Port of L.A. is well known for having the nation’s first clean air action plan and the first clean truck program, he said. The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles also have a roadmap to lower pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) and other emissions.

“This will be the tallest mountain we ever climbed,” Seroka told the audience. “It will be imperfect. We’re not just going to rise up. We’re going to take some steps. We’ll fail forward. Sometimes, we’ll even take steps backward. But we’re continuing to do our level best.”

For more than a year, the ports have brought in cargo ships that run on liquified natural gas (LNG), which cuts the pollution generated by the ships by 87 percent, he said. Shortly, the first methanol ship will enter the port of Los Angeles; methanol can reduce emissions even more than LNG, he said.

In striving for zero emissions, Seroka called for “the business community to join us. We want to continue to bring confidence to that community that they can invest along with us,” he said. “And while the aspirations are super high, we’re going to continue to do everything we can to reduce health risk and emissions.”

The Need for Infrastructure

Still, there is a long way to go, Seroka said.

Consider what is needed to make the trucking industry more sustainable: The typical truck driver who calls at the ports is 57 years old, makes $62,000 a year and has bought a truck on the tertiary market for about $50,000, he said. The battery electric Class 8 vehicle “that we’re attempting to introduce has a retail sticker price of between $400,000 and $500,000 and requires a similar in-kind investment for infrastructure,” he said.

Hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks are even more costly: between $700,000 and $800,000.” While California has 7,500 gas stations, there are only 46 hydrogen fueling stations, Seroka said.

The future calls for find more affordable solutions, innovation and technology adoption. Another equally important tenet is ensuring that the workforce isn’t left behind, Seroka said. That is why the training camps are being developed, he said. But more community support, whether for investment or employees, are needed so the ports can continue to propel the U.S. economy, he said.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Heidi Patricola)