b'28American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comNWSA on its way with infrastructure improvementsTheNWSAsinfrastructureimprovementshave placed the bi-port alliance of Tacoma and Seattle on a path to building capacity to pair with the exist-ing diverse cargo handling mix. But headwinds in the form of tariffs and other related decrees could be on the way.By George Lauriat, AJOTTheNorthwestSeaportinfrastructure. Almost exactly Alliance(NWSA)isaportayear-agoPhase2ofthe cargooperatingpartnershipTerminal5Modernization comprising the Puget SoundProject was completed. With ports of Seattle and Tacoma.thecompletionofPhase2 The ports are equal membersnow NWSA has 185-acres of in the NWSA yet remain sep- cargo capacity and can handle arate organizations that retainultra-largecontainershipsves-ownership of their respectivesels.Theprojectincluded assets. And its a port businesstwo reconfigured berths with arrangement that has workedsixstate-of-the-artsuper-post exceedingly well as the 3.34Panamaxcranestoenhance millionTEUstheNWSAoperationalefficiency,while handled in 2024 attests.(IMPROVEMENTS con-However, a closer look attinued on page 42) Aerial view of the Port of TacomatheNWSAscargothrough-putrevealsacomplexport structure that serves a variety of critical roles in the econ-omy of the Pacific Northwest. Forexample,whilethe twoportsprovidethegate-waytrafficforinternational freight, the NWSA also han-dledover730,000domestic TEUs in 2024a tally that alonewouldbyitselfmake it a major US container port. Over600,000TEUsofthis total was in the Alaska trade while just over 115,000 TEUs surprisingly was with Hawaii. ButtheNWSAisntjust about containers. The port part-nership handled over 400,000 metric tons of breakbulk cargo, over337,000unitsofautos, andevennearly880,000mt of petroleum. It is this combi-nation of cargo that makes the NWSAuniquelyvaluableto the economic well-being of the Pacific Northwest.This year started well for theNWSAasthecontainer throughput was nearly 265,000 TEUs compared to just over 211,000 TEUsinJanuaryof 2024. And in another positive sign, full international imports increased 34.7%, the eleventh consecutive month of growth and 9.5% above the gateways five-yearaverageforthe month. Some of this total was shippers boosting inventories ahead of the earlier than usual LunarNewYear.However, analystbelievesomeofthe throughputwasduetoship-pers front-end loading inven-tories in advance of the Trump Administrationsimposition of tariffs. However, the diverse cargo mix, and the domestic busi-nesscouldprovidesome insulation to the chill that the administrations tariffs and the impact of the proposed legis-lation on Chinese built ships could have on the alliance.B uilDinGp orti nfrastruCtureTheNWSAhasbeen active in building port-related'