Port of Los Angeles Prepares for the Future

When the NITL’s 105th annual meeting & TransComp exhibition convenes in Anaheim this week, there’s bound to be considerable attention paid to the pending expansion of the Panama Canal. Shippers will learn that West Coast ports will not remain complacent.

More proof of that came when the nation’s largest ocean cargo gateway announced major new investment in its infrastructure.

The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners has approved construction contracts totaling more than $127 million for two major projects that advance modernization of the marine container terminal operated by longtime tenant, TraPac, Inc.

With work due to begin in January, the projects are key elements of the Port of Los Angeles’ overall capital improvement program. The port is investing more than $1.2 billion over five years to remain competitive in the global economy.

The first contract, a $71.5 million project for new buildings and state-of-the-art truck entrance and exit gates at TraPac’s rear Berths 136-139, was awarded to Costa Mesa-based S. J. Amoroso Construction Co., Inc. The work includes a new administration building designed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standard, a new yard operations building, truck scales and a pedestrian bridge.

The facilities project, which also includes backland and other infrastructure improvements at Berths 145-147, will support approximately 540 direct one-year equivalent construction jobs. The work is due to be completed in the summer of 2015.

The second contract is a $55.7 million grade separation project awarded to Sacramento area-based MCM Construction, Inc. The South Wilmington Grade Separation involves building an elevated 4,100-foot roadway that links Harry Bridges Boulevard, Pier A Street and Fries Avenue to TraPac’s new entrance and separates truck from rail operations for safer and more efficient flow of traffic.

Both projects are part of a $365 million expansion of the TraPac terminal due to be completed in 2016. In 2009, the Port, TraPac and its parent company, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL), signed a 30-year lease that paved the way for the modernization project that will increase terminal productivity, green operations and generate thousands of jobs throughout Southern California.