Long Beach port to get $283 million in federal funds for Pier B rail facility, Rep. Garcia says

The Port of Los Beach will receive $283 million in federal funding for its massive Pier B rail facility project, which is designed to shift large amounts of cargo from trucks to rail in the years ahead to improve efficiency and clean the environment, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia has announced.

“This is a home run for Long Beach and the port,” Garcia, D-Long Beach, said in a Sunday, Dec. 17, interview, “but also, really, for the country.”

He called the Pier B project “transformational.”

“This allows us to reimagine on-dock rail and is going to change the way we get cargo in and out of the port,” said Garcia, co-chair of the congressional Ports Caucus. “It will take trucks off the streets in neighborhoods” and be better for the environment.

“This is intended to be as clean and modern (a project) as possible,” he added.

Mario Cordero, CEO of the Port of Long Beach, touted the grant in a Sunday evening statement.

“The impact this funding will have on developing this project of national importance is staggering,” Cordero said. “This is a facility that will help move cargo more efficiently to homes and businesses across America, and from U.S. producers to overseas markets, resulting in systemwide benefits to the supply chain.”

News of the additional infrastructure funding comes just weeks after the port announced — after 15 years of planning — that it was going out to bid in early 2024 for the first construction contract to begin building the on-dock rail support facility. A completion date has been estimated at 2032.

More funding will be needed for what is a $1.567 billion project, Garcia said, but the money, which is set to be formally announced on Monday, Dec. 18, is key to getting the project “started and off the ground.”

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021.

The Pier B facility aims to redconfigure the port’s existing 171-acre railyard in the Harbor District to improve cargo movement, ease roadway congestion and create better air quality.

In an Aug. 14 letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Garcia, who served two terms as Long Beach mayor before being elected to Congress in 2022, said the project will “significantly enhance on-dock rail operations at one of the nation’s busiest container ports and the use of on-dock rail by over 3.5 million shipping containers per year.”

When operating at capacity, the letter said, “an estimated average of 17 trains per day will use the yard, which is more than double what it sees today.”

The project will also allow for longer trains, accelerate the velocity of goods movement and eliminate some 7 million annual truck trips, Garcia said in the letter.

“This will all result,” the letter said, “in reduced congestion and, with fewer trucks idling on California’s highways, improved air quality.”

The completed project, Garcia further said in the letter requesting the funds, “will provide much needed relief to an over-stressed rail network, advance the economic and environmental sustainability goals of the Port of Long Beach and its users, and allow the San Pedro Bay port complex to continue to provide reliable international access for the nation’s exports and imports.”

The San Pedro Bay port complex includes both the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

The centerpiece Pier B project will complete the North Rail Yard Expansion and the South Rail Yard Expansion at the Port of Long Beach.

At the North Rail Yard, the port will construct two new mainline tracks, five new 10,000-foot receiving and departure tracks — extending from west of the Dominguez Channel to the Pico Avenue Rail Corridor — and 26 new storage tracks north of the Existing Pier B Yard, according to Garcia’s office.

The South Rail Yard Expansion will add seven new 3,000-foot storage tracks; lengthen and rehabilitate seven existing 3,000-foot storage tracks; construct two new tracks in the Pico Avenue Rail Corridor, reconfigure tracks near Pier D Street, and construct a new compressed air facility.

Most of the overall $1.567 billion cost will be for construction. The port will continue to seek grants for the full funding. Prior to this weekend’s announcement by Garcia, the port had received nearly $360 million in grants from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the California Transportation Commission and the Federal Maritime Administration, according to a November press release posted on the POLB website.

“We’re eager to break ground and start laying new tracks for this transformative facility,” Long Beach harbor commission President Bobby OIvera Jr. said in the November press release. “Expanding and modernizing this rail yard allows our port to move more cargo faster, more efficiently and more safely to markets across the nation.”

About 20% of cargo comes and goes through the San Pedro Bay Complex via on-dock rail,” the Long Beach port said in the November press release. The Pier B project will help get that to 35%, the release said, a benchmark that is part of an overall goal to reduce  greenhouse gas emissions from port-related sources to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050.

So far, the November press release said, the port has invested $140 million in pre-construction work for the Pier B development. That is expected to reach $273 million when the port’s 2024 fiscal year ends in September. Most of the money has gone to design and planning costs.

The new federal funding, Garcia said, will open the way for the construction to launch in early 2024. The project will be constructed in phases and is expected to be completed in 2032, according to the Port of Long Beach.

Port CEO Mario Cordero, quoted in last month’s website release, heralded 2024 as being “a pivotal” year for the new Pier B Rail Facility.

“By augmenting our ability to increase velocity in container movement by rail and move more cargo by rail,” he said, “the port is well-positioned to handle cargo growth, prevent supply chain delays and reduce emissions associated with port activity into the future.”

In November, the port also announced that help from an earlier $52.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation will be used to improve and expand several roadways within the Pier B railyard.

Source: Orange County Register