San Francisco area aims for $850 million in state freight funds

San Francisco area aims for $850 million in state freight funds California Metropolitan Transportation Committee officials pitched an $840 million freight transportation package to state officials Wednesday, which if fully approved, will lead to smoother truck and rail service throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Valley region.
   The package, presented to California Department of Transportation officials, includes projects that would improve truck and rail flow at the ports of Oakland and Stockton, smooth rail traffic between Richmond and Martinez and allow double-stack rail trains on tunnels through Donner Pass.
   The total of 12 projects detailed in the Bay Area package would cost $1.7 billion, with $840 million being funded from state bond funds and the rest funded by available sources.
   Area officials hope that smoothing the flow of freight traffic in and out of the Bay Area will also alleviate commuter traffic in the region.
   Members of the MTC approved the package earlier this month in hopes of claiming a sizable portion of the $2 billion Trade Corridor Improvement Fund included in the nearly $20 billion Propostion 1b infrastructure bonds approved by the state's voters in November 2006.
   The ultimate arbiter of the fund, the California Transportation Commission, is set to make initial recommendations on proposed plans early next month. MTC will have an opportunity to modify its proposals before CTC's final vote on Nov. 28.
   The request for more than 30 percent of the available bond funds is in keeping with previous awards by the CTC to the Bay Area. Earlier this year, the CTC awarded $1.2 billion of $4 billion in anti-congestion fund from the Prop. 1b bond funds.
   The Bay Area, once the preeminent West Coast port-of-call for freight, fell behind Southern California port facilities during the shift to intermodal cargo. Ports such as Long Beach and Los Angeles, with their highly integrated highway and rail networks, easily adapted to the containerized model and now rank as the two busiest container ports in the Western Hemisphere. The Port of Oakland ranks fourth in annual container volume behind the Southern California ports and the New York-New Jersey port complex.