(The following story by Kelly Rayburn appeared on the Oakland Tribune website on March 25, 2010.)
OAKLAND, Calif. — As the Port of Oakland continues to navigate a rough economy, government, business and labor leaders are looking to the future and laying the groundwork for the most efficient means of moving goods through the port and the entire region.
More than 400 participants will gather today at the Oakland Marriott for the 2010 Northern California MegaRegion Summit. Officials think the port could play a key role in the region’s economic recovery, but they acknowledge that officials will have to make the right decisions and investments in order to maximize its efficiency.
“The conversation is about what’s happening now, what still needs to happen and how we’re going to pay for it,” said Karen Engel, director of economic development for the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
The event runs from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is being hosted by the chamber, the port and the city of Oakland. The event’s sponsors have set up an “American Idol”-style instant-polling system; those in attendance will cast votes on what their top priorities on goods movement are — and how they might be paid for.
“You’re going to get everybody in the room and get feedback immediately,” said Omar Benjamin, the port’s executive director. “It’s very exciting.
Overall, container traffic at the Port of Oakland fell by 6.5 percent in 2008 and by another 8.2 percent in 2009, according to port figures. That was not as bad other California ports, and, in fact, exports actually rose in 2009 while imports continued to drop.
The port hopes to double the number of containers coming and going by 2020. The city and the port are developing 425 acres of the former Oakland Army Base after tapping San Francisco’s AMB Property Corp. and Oakland’s California Capital Group as the base’s master developers. Officials hope the development, which is adjacent to the port and will stress trade and logistics, will help keep Oakland competitive.
Key to any growth the port might experience is getting more containers on trains rather than trucks, said Jock O’Connell, an authority on international trade with The ClarkStreet Group consulting firm in Sacramento.
Doing that will take some changes in Northern California’s rail system, including finding ways to accommodate more freight trains between the Bay Area and the Central Valley and eliminating bottlenecks, he said.
Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway Co. have made investments that officials here say bode well for moving goods by rail to and from Oakland. Union Pacific spent 12 months enlarging 15 tunnels between Rocklin and Truckee so double-stacked trains could move more quickly from Oakland through the Sierra Nevada. BNSF is working on improving freight movement through the Tehachapi Pass.
The port is benefiting from state Proposition 1B funds that Benjamin said should improve the efficiency with which trains operate coming into and out of the port — including helping eliminate the Martinez Subdivision bottleneck in Richmond.
He said the port is positioned well to remain competitive internationally in part because of public and private investments but also because of a healthy mix of imports and exports. One reason for the relatively high number of exports: the region’s agriculture output.
“People have to eat,” Benjamin said. “That positions us in the future from a competitive standpoint as we go forward executing our plan.”