Watch: Long Beach's New Container Terminal
The port of Long Beach has released a video update on the construction of its new container terminal. Long Beach Container Terminal's new Middle Harbor terminal will be one of the most advanced and greenest in the world and will be the fourth largest terminal in the U.S. on completion.
Phase one of the project has now been completed, and Long Beach Container Terminal is testing the new equipment and system in preparation for opening the terminal in 2016.
The Port of Long Beach signed a 40-year, $4.6 billion lease with Orient Overseas Container Line and its subsidiary, Long Beach Container Terminal, for the Middle Harbor property, in the largest deal of its kind for any U.S. seaport.
The new terminal will more than double the capacity of the two terminals it replaces. The nine-year, $1.31 billion project will upgrade wharfs, water access and container yards as well as add a greatly expanded on-dock rail yard. Construction on the project started in spring 2011, and the entire project is expected to be complete in 2019.
In keeping with the Port's Green Port Policy and the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan, the project will minimize or eliminate negative environmental impacts from shipping operations by measures that include:
• Shore power for ships
• Expanded on-dock rail to shift more than 30 percent of the cargo shipments from trucks to trains
• Cleaner yard equipment
• Electric rail-mounted gantry (RMG) cranes
• Green Flag Vessel Speed Reduction program requirements
• Use of low-sulfur fuels for ships' main and auxiliary engines
• "Green building" (LEED) environmental standards
• Storm water pollution prevention
• Solar panels
• Reuse or recycle waste materials such as concrete, steel, copper, and other materials during construction
Cement Poured for New Bridge
The new terminal is one of several major projects underway at the port. Another is the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project. The bridge has become a vital part of the nation’s infrastructure, says the port, with nearly 15 percent of the nation’s waterborne cargo trucked across the bridge. It is a critical access route for the Port of Long Beach, downtown Long Beach and surrounding communities.
The new bridge will be built with a cable-stayed design and will be high enough to accommodate the newest generation of the most efficient cargo ships. In addition, the new bridge will be wider and better able to accommodate existing and future traffic volumes.
Visible for miles, the two towers on either side of the Port’s Back Channel will be the main features of the cable-stayed bridge, the first of its kind in California. Scheduled for completion in 2018, the new bridge will also one of the tallest of its kind in the United States.
This week, in a highly choreographed event involving a stream of concrete trucks, huge pumps and dozens of workers, contractors completed a critical “pile cap” that allows crews to start erecting the first of two 515-foot-tall towers for the new bridge.
Rail Expansion
Earlier in the month, officials gathered to celebrate the completion of the Green Port Gateway, a rail expansion that added 30,000 feet of track at the Port of Long Beach.
Construction of the Green Port Gateway began in 2012 and is designed to relieve bottlenecks and allow port terminals to increase their use of on-dock rail, decreasing truck traffic and air pollution. It will enable the port to reach its goal of moving 35 percent of containerized cargo via on-dock rail this decade. Ultimately, the port aims to 50 percent of its cargo directly from terminals by train.