Photo credit: Joshua Treviño

We’ve mentioned this short sea shipping project between Stockton and Oakland before. But it’s great news to hear that a major public entity — the Bay Area Air Quality Management District — is laying down some big money to help move things forward.

“While the air district’s funding is an important step, [Richard Aschieris, Port of Stockton director] said additional funds are needed – perhaps in “the low twenty-million-dollar range” – for the necessary infrastructure. Federal economic stimulus grants are being sought. [...]

The Port of Stockton has historically handled bulk cargo, such as grain, minerals, fertilizer and steel, but not goods packed into steel shipping containers.

So it will need to install cranes and other improvements in order to move the containers from trucks and load them onto barges to be towed by tugboats to Oakland.” [...]

Read the full story here.