By Stas Margaronis, AJOT The Port of Long Beach is engaged in a $4 billion capital investment program to modernize its facilities to keep the Port competitive for the next two decades. The question being asked in many quarters is will this investment program blunt any advantage the Panama Can widening will give to East Coast ports? Art Wong, assistant communications director for the Port of Long Beach, outlined the key points in the Port’s strategy to the AJOT: • The Middle Harbor modernization is a $1.2 billion investment building a new mega container ship terminal to accommodate 18,000 teu ships for Hong Kong-based Overseas Orient Container Lines (OOCL). The modernization will include improvements in land, the docks and rail connections. OOCL will make a $500 million investment in new equipment including container cranes. • Pier G improvements for the new K Line terminal include $470 million for rail, building and land improvements, but a further investment of $500 million for a second phase has been slowed down because of the economy • The Desmond Bridge replacement will increase the bridge height from 155 feet to 205 feet. The Gerald Desmond Bridge, which opened in 1968, carries about 15% of all the nation’s imported goods. The new bridge will have a higher clearance to accommodate the newest generation of boxships. The total cost of the bridge replacement is expected to be around $1 billion. • Terminal T is proposed for a new grain export terminal to be operated by Total Transport International, LLC. TTI is proposing to build a facility that would transfer grain from rail cars into ocean containers. The project would export 750,000 to 1.5 million tons of grain per year sourcing grain from Mid-West growers. Wong says that capacity could be increased. Also, the facility will help build up Long Beach’s export capability and allow for ships arriving at Long Beach to pick up full containers instead of returning back to Asia with empty containers. As import levels flatten or decline, the bright spot is the improvement in exports. Some issues with the project still need to be worked out requiring revisions to the project’s EIR (Environmental Impact Report). Nevertheless, the use of container ships to carry grain cargoes may challenge traditional bulk carrier models creating a new ocean transportation system for the grain trades. This also poses advantages for Asian shippers who can acquire grain in smaller containerized loads obviating the need to rely on costlier grain elevators and distributors transferring the grain from large bulk carriers on to rail cars, trucks or grain barges. • Pier S will develop the last undeveloped port property composing 165 acres and costing $650 million. Plans for the terminal are being finalized and it is hoped that construction will begin on the new terminal in 2013. Rail improvements will help shift more container loads onto rail cars instead of trucks inside the port and were originally estimated to cost between $200-$400 million, but those figures are being revised. Productivity Challenge Of Mega Ships Wong said the port is facing new challenges as it copes with a new line of 18,000 teu container ships currently being built to replace the 6,000-teu vessels now calling. Potentially, Maersk’s (and others) deployment of larger ships will lead to fewer vessel calls at US ports. However, fewer calls with larger ships could result in a 300% increase in the loading and discharge of containers within a shorter period of time (see AJOT March 26-April 8, 2012). The 18,000-teu-vessel design remains at a 45-foot draft but the vessels will be longer and wider, going from a beam of 100 feet to 160 feet. The dimensions of this class require a new generation of container cranes, such as the ones being ordered by OOCL for the Mid Harbor Terminal. These will replace older cranes with a narrower ship reach. It will requires new cargo handling equipment to move the containers off the vessels and into stacks to be picked up by truck or by rail. There is c