UP plans $300 million Los Angeles port upgrade

UP plans $300 million Los Angeles port upgrade The Union Pacific Railroad is proposing a $300 million upgrade to its near-dock intermodal rail facility just north of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
   In addition to modernizing current infrastructure at the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility, the plan calls for replacing the vast majority of the facility's 73 diesel top handlers with rail-mounted, electric-powered cantilever cranes. Nearly a dozen existing diesel gantry cranes would also be replaced with models running on electricity.
   The plan claims that the upgrades would significantly reduce lighting, noise and air pollution for nearby residents.
   Approval of the plan, presented to the port on Friday, will require the consensus of the port's governing harbor commission board.
   Port officials plan to submit a formal response to the plan within 30 days. If given the go ahead, the plan would require an environmental impact report to be filed, public comment received, and a final report approved before any construction upgrades could be started.
   The 200-acre ICTF opened in 1986 and now handles about 700,000 containers a year, most short-hauled by truck the nearly five miles from the two ports.
   Criticism of the ports by community, health and political leaders has neared a fever pitch in recent years, with all demanding significant reductions in port-generated pollution. The ports, including the ICTF and other nearby facilities, have been identified as the largest single-point source of diesel pollution in Southern California. Studies have shown that the ICTF truck circuit attracts some of the oldest and most polluting trucks in the Southland basin.
   Los Angeles port commissioners are expected to hear a brief on the plan from the port executive director on Thursday.