Port of Sacramento channel. Photo credit: George Kelly

For anyone familiar with short sea shipping, this article — “Sacramento region gears up for ‘marine highway’ system: Cargo to be shipped by barge between Port of Oakland and Port of West Sacramento” — is familiar territory. What’s good to see, however, is the community support in the comments section.

“Very soon, you will see barges loaded with containerized cargo sailing into the Port of West Sacramento. This movement of goods is called the “marine highway” and it will help bring hundreds of new jobs to the region while improving air quality and reducing highway congestion by taking more than 1 million truck trips off area roads.”

More than 100 business and civic leaders heard details of the “marine highway” outlined during the Northern California World Trade Center’s annual State of the Sea Ports event, held June 25 in West Sacramento.

The company expecting to begin shipping containerized cargo from the Port of Oakland to West Sacramento and Stockton is Denver-based The Broe Group and San Francisco-based Eco-Transport. Company vice president Alex Yeros said he hopes operations will start this year.

The “marine highway” concept offers many positive contributions to the region’s economy, Yeros said, including creating new family wages jobs in the San Joaquin Valley, reducing harmful air emissions, improving traffic congestion and safety and reducing wear and tear on highways and infrastructure. [...]“

Read the full story here.