Long Beach Pier brought to life
October 19, 2011
A proposal to develop a state-of-the-art $650 million container shipping terminal at Long Beach, in the US, is finally under serious consideration after a decade.
The development would include a wharf, berths and terminal infrastructure at Pier S, on Terminal Island, as well as improvements to the port’s back channel to upgrade navigational safety.
Environmentally friendly features include ships being able to plug into clean electricity at berth, on-dock rail lines to minimise truck trips and clean cargo-handling equipment.
Art Wong, Assistant Director of communications at Port of Long Beach, said: “The new terminal would increase capacity to nearly two million teu a year.”
The project was actually started 10 years ago, and an earlier version was approved about seven years ago, according to Wong.
“We did a navigational study and found that we needed improvements to the channels into this area. So we re-examined our plans, and now have this new project.”
If the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners approve the project, the port will negotiate a lease for a tenant. The port plans to fund the entire project with revenues from the lease.
Wong predicted construction could begin in 2013 or 2014, and would take two to three years, so the new terminal could be open as early as 2015.
