SoCal ports to tap public for $7.8 billion in development funds

SoCal ports to tap public for $7.8 billion in development funds Southern California ports believe they have found a major untapped revenue stream to pay for port-area development — the public.
   Officials at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles want taxpayers and consumers to pay for $7.8 billion in port-defined infrastructure development, according to internal port documents obtained by California Connection.
   The documents reveal that the ports have identified $8.1 billion in road and rail projects considered by port officials as “critical” to keeping the two ports growing. According to the documents, the ports are willing to pay $267 million, or 3.3 percent, of the total cost of the projects. Under the port funding scheme detailed in the documents, taxpayer funds from federal, state and local sources would pay for $3.7 billion of the total. The remaining $4.1 billion would be passed along to importers, exporters and the railroads through port-imposed fees. Economic experts have said these companies would not absorb these costs, but pass them along to consumers in the form of higher prices.
   The two neighboring ports, which together comprise the busiest container port complex in the Western Hemisphere, moved nearly 16 million TEUs last year. Estimates suggest that this number will more than double within a decade. Given that the port-area infrastructure continues to deteriorate as costs for repairs and development have skyrocketed, the problem has grown out of reach of even the financially lucrative ports.
   For example, one project detailed in the documents — replacing the aging Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach’s port — has risen in cost over the past five years from around $350 million to a current estimate of more than $800 million. A taller, higher-capacity version of the bridge is considered a key project by Long Beach port officials, despite criticisms from local groups that it would lead to higher truck volumes and more pollution. The current bridge was built in the late 1960s and is considered a bottleneck at the ports due to its low traffic capacity. It is also too low to allow future mega-container vessels safe passage underneath it. Despite Long Beach identifying the bridge as a project of critical importance, the port documents reveal that the two ports are willing to provide only $56 million, about 7 percent of the total, to its replacement.
   Other projects identified in the documents include:
   * A $1.8 billion port trucking reregulation plan.
   * Numerous on-dock rail projects.
   * The Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement, to allow more trucks over it and larger vessels under it.
   * Expanding a short port-area freeway used almost exclusively to deliver containers to a near-dock port railyard.
   * Rebuilding freeway connectors serving the Los Angeles port.
   * Highway-rail grade separations in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
   Much of the federal, state and local funding listed in the port documents has yet to be secured by port officials.
   Despite the funding scheme’s heavy reliance on taxpayer dollars — nearly 46 percent according to the documents — the ports continue to maintain that they are not supported by taxpayer dollars.