LOS ANGELES COUNTY — Aiming to improve security at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, the public agency that built the Alameda Corridor freight rail expressway is proposing to help study a system to electronically track the movement of cargo containers and their contents from the moment they arrive.
The Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA) is working with TransCore Inc. of San Diego, The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) and Union Pacific Railroad (UP) to test the effectiveness of electronic seals on rail cars traversing the Alameda Corridor. Preliminary tests have proved positive, and the group is preparing a proposal for a $1.2 million federal grant to conduct field operations tests.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handle 43 percent of all maritime containers coming into the United States. Tracking and tracing these containers and their contents is important to national security because the containers could be used by terrorists to carry dangerous weapons or chemicals.
The use of electronic seals is one of the federal government’s high-priority concepts for tracking cargo containers into the United States and could become a key element of cargo security programs now under consideration. The ACTA Governing Board on Thursday received a status report on the testing program.
“Port security is of great concern to me, and I am pleased that ACTA is taking a leadership role in cargo safety,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, chairwoman of the ACTA Governing Board. “ACTA has proven itself a leader in cargo technology, and I am hopeful that this tracking system will prove to be effective and contribute to homeland security across the country.” Hahn also chairs a Blue Ribbon Commission on Port Safety and Productivity established recently by the mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
“Security at the ports and in the movement of cargo containers is a high priority for the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority and for the nation,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, a member of the ACTA Governing Board. Knabe last month was appointed to the State and Local Officials Senior Advisory Committee to the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council.
Opened on time and on budget in April 2002, the $2.4 billion Alameda Corridor is a 20-mile freight rail expressway linking the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach to the national rail network at the railroad yards near downtown Los Angeles. It is designed to facilitate booming international trade through the nation’s busiest port complex while minimizing impacts on local communities. By consolidating four branch rail lines into an expressway, the Alameda Corridor has cut travel times of cargo trains by more than half.
ACTA already utilizes electronic scanners to track the movement of rail cars for the purpose of collecting use fees from the railroads. The potential $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation would be used to modify these scanners and develop software and hardware to read not only the tags already on all rail cars but also the electronic seals that may be placed on the cargo containers in the near future.
TransCore is evaluating a similar tracking system for cargo containers placed on trucks at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma in Washington state.
The Alameda Corridor was built by ACTA, a joint powers authority governed by the cities and ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It is operated by the ports, BNSF and UP.