THE CALIFORNIAN WAY

Increasingly, ports and terminal operators are challenged to better understand and respond to the worldwide economics of cargo transportation and distribution. The need to respond to these forces has many ports reviewing facilities to ensure the operation of even the newest terminal is as efficient and responsive as possible.

US West Coast ports, and those in California especially, face significant growth pressures, most of which are the result of the successful role they play in the international trade that is vitally important to California's and the rest of the US economy. Ports and terminals throughout the US are seeking ways to increase container terminal productivity to expand the capacity of their existing facilities without having to build new facilities. The reason: port land is ultimately limited and most ports will run out of available land for new or additional terminal facilities in the foreseeable future.

What West Coast US terminals do is very impressive. About 15m TEUs come through the West Coast each year. Just to put this in perspective:

If you placed that many containers end-to-end, the length would be 56,820 miles or about one-and-three-quarter times the circumference of the Earth.

If you stacked them on top of each other, the stack would be 25,500 miles high.

If you placed them side-by-side and end-to-end on the ground, they would cover 55,000 acres or about 86 square miles.

Obviously those containers must be kept moving or they would create a very serious space problem for someone. Keeping them moving is the secret to the next round of productivity increases. So ports and terminals must proactively manage both space and time.

On the West Coast, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have become the critical hub for the import and export of goods between the US and the Pacific Rim. Container volume for the combined ports was nearly 12m TEUs for 2003 and that number is expected to more than triple by the year 2025. As the ports plan for this future they must be concerned with impacts beyond their traditional boundaries and manage growth as a friendly neighbour to the surrounding community.

Traffic congestion, conflicts with neighboring communities and air quality concerns are among the main friction points. The present volume of cargo is already stressing nearby highways during peak hours. Congestion on Southern California freeways is a daily experience. Passenger cars and commercial truck traffic clog many of the local freeways, exceeding their capacity. As a result, quality of life is adversely impacted and business activities face disruptions. A number of ports around the US such as New York/New Jersey face similar issues.

If ports are to meet these challenges, then local governments, federal agencies, the ports, labour, truckers and warehouse operators must collectively change business practices and initiate new methods of moving the nation's goods in a more communityfriendly manner. For example, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach along with the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority have been coordinating efforts with many organisations and stakeholder groups to this end. Meeting these challenges will require the public and private sectors to work together to maximise efficiencies, implement state-of-the-art technology and improve infrastructure.

M&N, as an international port industry planning and design firm, is working closely with the ports in Southern California as well as ports elsewhere in the US to help address these traffic congestion, air quality and community quality of life issues. The firm's port planning, transportation and freight econometrics groups are working in concert to tackle many of these issues for port and transportation authorities.

GREATEST CONGESTION RELIEF The effort to shift truck container movements to off-peak hours has been identified by community leaders as providing the greatest amount of highway congestion relief while also being the most cost effective and expedient option. It has been estimated that the benefit of an extended gate operation could shift up to 40% of the portgenerated truck traffic from daytime to off-peak hours when highways are not congested. This can be accomplished with almost no infrastructure change. The main challenge is changing the way many stakeholders currently do business.

Marine terminals cannot afford to stay open during off-peak hours, at great expense, if a sufficient number of trucks do not utilise these hours for picking up cargo. Equally important, warehouses and distribution centers must be open to receive the cargo during these off-peak hours. Without a system-wide approach that includes the support of warehouses and distribution centres, extended hours of port operations will fail to achieve the intended goals.

Working with ports throughout the US, M&N is performing feasibility studies and supporting public and private sector business planning, working with terminals, local shippers, warehouse operators and truckers to identify ways to spread the flow of traffic over a greater number of hours. At this time, most terminals are open during the evenings to load and unload ships but the "gates" that accept truck pickups and deliveries are usually open only from 8 am to 5 pm. Where extended gate hours are being offered on a limited basis, the small number of trucks using the service does not cover the added operating cost to the marine terminal.

The ports and local community leaders would like more terminals to open their gates during off-peak hours to reduce flows during daytime congested periods. But to make these extended gate hours effective, shippers, warehouse operators and truckers need to cooperate by taking deliveries after hours as well. Methods of reimbursing increased costs associated with extended gate hours are being discussed both by the private sector and in public forums.

30% ALREADY BY RAIL Emphasis on the use of rail is another way ports are working to reduce congestion. Approximately, 30% of the cargo that leaves Southern California is loaded onto trains within or near the ports' terminals and never touches the highway. The Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority is exploring shuttle trains that could carry cargo from the ports to an inland transfer facility and then to warehouses in the Inland Empire. If feasible, this shuttle train facility could take a significant number of trucks off the highways.

The solutions also include reducing diesel emissions from trucks, trains and other types of port equipment. The ports are completing a multi-million dollar programme to retrofit about 600 off-road diesel trucks with catalytic converters and switch them to a cleaner diesel fuel. Ports also are requiring tenants to reduce emissions from all terminal equipment within the next five years. The ports themselves are switching to low- and zero-emission vehicles for the harbor department. In addition, the ports have been contributors to the Gateway Cities programme to replace older on-road diesel trucks with newer, cleaner models.

In addition, the ports are working to reduce emissions from ships.

Vessels are engaged in international trade and cannot be regulated by the ports alone. Nonetheless, the ports have launched a voluntary ship speed reduction programme to curb emissions. The programme urges vessels to travel at or below 12 knots within 20 miles of the coast. During the last three years, the programme has reduced ship emissions by about one ton a day. Finally, the ports also are investigating the feasibility of providing shore-side electrical power to ships at berth so that vessels could turn off their engines while docked. At the Port of Los Angeles, so-called "cold ironing" has started at the recently opened China Shipping terminal.

US ports continue to grow as the flow of containerised cargo increases. The ports are working hard to minimise the growing pains and expand responsibly and safely as they handle the ongoing surge of international cargo and demand for international goods. To do this, the ports recognise that improving efficiency, reducing pollution and untangling port-related traffic problems are among the highest priorities.

Moffatt & Nichol is a worldwide planning and design consulting firm, specialising in ports, harbours, transportation, urban waterfronts, coastal engineering and water resources management. The firm, with offices throughout the US, provides feasibility studies, computer modeling, engineering, strategic planning and programme management services for a variety of projects in the US and internationally.