Union Pacific announced it is modifying its near-dock container transfer operation near the Port of Los Angeles to reduce truck traffic in and out of downtown Los Angeles. The change will help eliminate an estimated 500,000 truck trips annually from Los Angeles-area highways such as the busy I-710.
Union Pacific's Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF), located just four miles from the Port, will load and unload nearly all L.A. Basin international marine containers not handled on dock, eliminating the need to truck international containers to other Los Angeles-area intermodal ramps via busy highways.
International containers will continue to make the short four-mile trip from the Port to Union Pacific's ICTF via truck, but once at the ICTF, international containers will be transferred to rail cars and then travel through the Alameda Corridor to destinations throughout the United States ' favorably affecting traffic congestion and air emissions in the L.A. Basin.
The new container handling policy will consume most of the ICTF's capacity. To accommodate anticipated growth at San Pedro Bay Ports, Union Pacific and Port Authorities are investigating expanding the ICTF to handle an estimated 1.6 million marine containers annually.
Recently, the Port of Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners directed its staff to work with Union Pacific on possible expansion and provide the Board with an interim status report. The proposed expansion would be consistent with phases contemplated when the ICTF was planned and constructed in the 1980s.
"An expanded ICTF will support Port growth and promote increased use of the Alameda Corridor," said John Kaiser, vice president and general manager of intermodal - Marketing and Sales for Union Pacific. "The expansion also would help control highway congestion and truck emissions by eliminating millions of future truck trips annually."
