Mario Cordero, Chief Executive Officer, Port of Long Beach, speaks as officials gathered to break ground on “America’s Green Gateway,” the Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility in Long Beach on Thursday, July 18, 2024. (Photo by Brittany M. Solo Press-Telegram/SCNG)
L-R Mark Tollefson, Undersecretary, California State Transportation Agency, Bobby Olvera Jr., Long Beach Harbor Commission President, Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, Councilwoman Megan Kerr, Mario Cordero, Chief Executive Officer, Port of Long Beach and Patricia Aguirre, Executive Board, Marine Clerks Association, ILWU Local 63, break ground on “America’s Green Gateway,” the Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility in Long Beach on Thursday, July 18, 2024. (Photo by Brittany M. Solo Press-Telegram/SCNG)
A train at the Pier B railyard at the Port of Long Beach. In September 2018, the port approved a plan to reconfigure the location to add more on-dock rail capacity. (File photo courtesy of the Port of Long Beach)
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Mario Cordero, Chief Executive Officer, Port of Long Beach, speaks as officials gathered to break ground on “America’s Green Gateway,” the Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility in Long Beach on Thursday, July 18, 2024. (Photo by Brittany M. Solo Press-Telegram/SCNG)
A virtual community meeting to provide updates on the status of the Port of Long Beach’s Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility project will take place this week.
The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, via Zoom.
The rail planned facility — expected to be finished in 2032 — is the centerpiece of the Port of Long Beach’s rail capital improvement program. The goal is to shift more cargo to on-dock rail, with containers taken to and from marine terminals by train. Moving cargo by on-dock rail is cleaner and more efficient, as it reduces truck traffic. No cargo trucks would visit the facility.
The facility will be built in phases and as each one will enhance capacity and operations.
The project began construction in 2024 and completion of the entire project is expected in 2032.
Members of the public can join the virtual meeting from a computer, phone or other mobile device. A recording of the meeting will be posted at polb.com/PierB for those unable to participate.
To sign up for the Zoom meeting, go to the port’s website. Contact Veronica Morales at 562-283-7722 or veronica.morales@polb.com for help registering for the event
A groundbreaking ceremony for the project took place in July 2024, and drew 500 people and several guest speakers, including former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The project was expected to cost $1.567 billion.
The project has been hailed by port officials, and is expected to revolutionize some aspects of how the port operates, bringing more speed and efficiency, and less pollution.
It will reconfigure, expand and enhance the existing Pier B rail yard, and directly connect to on-dock rail facilities and the Alameda Corridor railway, according to the port’s website. The project will:
Double the size of the existing Pier B rail yard form 82 acres to 1717 acres.
More than triple the volume of on-dock rail cargo the port can handle annually, from 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units to 4.7 million TEUs.
Feature a depot for fueling and servicing up to 30 locomotives at the same time and a full-service staging area to assemble and break down trains up to 10,000 feet long.