Work begins on California’s new Green Trade Corridor

A US$30 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant is helping to fund a new three-port partnership and the development of a viable waterborne shipping route between Oakland, Stockton and West Sacramento.

The Green Trade Corridor project will create a new, greener transportation alternative to conventional freight movements in Northern California.

Currently, international trade, imports, and exports, are moved almost exclusively by truck or rail in California. The TIGER grant to the ports of Oakland, West Sacramento, and Stockton enables a partnership that will use
barges to move cargo along the inland waterway system from Stockton and West Sacramento to Oakland for ultimate shipment to the Far East.

Vessel operations are scheduled to begin in early-2012.

Federal grants will be used to purchase or upgrade port facilities and the equipment needed to make the marine highway system a reality, including:

• The construction of a staging area at the Port of Stockton for cargo dedicated to the new marine highway, and the purchase of two cranes and a barge to support the service.

• The construction of a distribution centre and the purchase of a crane in West Sacramento, where freight, mostly agricultural products from California’s Central Valley, will be re-packed into larger containers for transport on water.

• The installation of electrical supply at ship berths in the Port of Oakland, which will allow operators to shut down an ocean-going vessel’s diesel engines while in port, further reducing the air emissions in this green trade corridor.

Part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, the TIGER program is designed to promote innovative, multi-modal and multi-jurisdictional transportation projects that provide significant economic and environmental
benefits to an entire metropolitan area, region or the nation.

America’s Marine Highway program is a new Congressionally-authorised initiative to move more cargo and passengers, when possible, on water routes to relieve landside congestion on the roadways and reduce emissions.