The Blue Coast Intermodal Project (also known as the West Coast Hub Feeder Project) has been awarded $275,000 by the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of a federal initiative designed to move cargo along rivers and coasts rather than highways. This is the first time ever that a Marine Highway program west of the Gulf Coast has received federal funding.

“This is a decisive moment for transportation on the West Coast,” said HML founder Stephen Pepper. “The environmental and economic repercussions of this project extend through multiple states. This funding is a strong message to both the private and public sectors that Washington D.C. is serious about finding Marine Highway solutions.”

From theworldlink.com: Port officials say developers are still interested in building a marine cargo terminal in Coos Bay. But the downturn has pushed off construction until 2017 at the earliest.

Over the past several years, the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay has hosted visitors from around the Pacific Rim and Europe, who have been interested in the area’s industrial sites. One of their guests was reportedly the American arm of A.P. Moller-Maersk, though the Denmark-based company has remained mum on the subject.

From oregonlive.com: Port of Portland commissioners brushed aside an accusation of unfairness Wednesday and unanimously approved a deal with a Philippine company that aims to double Portland’s shipping-container volume within five years. 

Managers from International Container Terminal Services Inc., of Manila, predicted after a public hearing that they would attract more steamship lines to Terminal 6, a sprawling Columbia River container yard in Portland’s Rivergate Industrial District.

The International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics had an interesting piece last month on how managing empty containers is an integral part of creating a short sea shipping and regional ports infrastructure.


“Short sea shipping represents a viable tactic in the implementation of a regional port system development strategy on the West Coast of the USA and should be considered as a possible method for alleviating landside congestion stemming from commercial traffic in major urban corridors.”[...]

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 [...]

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.”

This morning the Daily Journal of Commerce in Portland alerted us to the fact that the Port of Vancouver’s mobile harbor cranes — which are the largest in North America — now have names.
“A contest was held between the port and 31 different fifth-grade classes to come up with names for the cranes. The first [...]

This story does a good job of laying out the strengths and weaknesses of both on-highway and waterborne transportation. It underlies an argument we’ve been making for years: Intermodal short sea shipping isn’t perfect for every shipper. Barging will always have to work in tandem with its agile cousins, the trucking industry. But when it comes to moving large amounts of freight in a cheap, green way, we can’t be beat.
“The trucking industry has done a great job in providing excellent service, and flexible service at reasonably low prices, but they’ve done it at the expense of the environment and the infrastructure,” said Kevin Mack, vice president for development at [...]