Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, announced an investment of more than $1.5 billion in port infrastructure, including approximately $450 million for zero-emission infrastructure, locomotives, vessels and vehicles.
The $1.2 billion will fund 15 projects creating an estimated 20,000 jobs and increase the capacity to move goods throughout the state’s global trade gateways while lessening environmental impacts on neighboring communities.
Administered by the California State Transportation Agency, $350 million was also awarded to 13 projects that eliminate street-level rail crossings to make critical lifesaving safety improvements, reduce emissions and keep goods and people moving.
Projects receiving funding will help boost capacity to move goods through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which are the busiest ports in the Western Hemisphere, as well as enhance all major trade centers throughout the state, from San Diego to the Central Valley to the Bay Area.
During an event announcing the awards at the Port of Long Beach, US Transportation Secretary, Toks Omishakin, said that “these awards will help maintain our state’s competitive edge in our nation-leading supply chain infrastructure and will create a cleaner, safer and more efficient goods movement system that will have a lasting positive impact for the people of California”.
“No other state has a supply chain as critical to the national and global economy as California,” said Governor Newsom. “These investments – unprecedented in scope and scale – will modernize our ports, reduce pollution, eliminate bottlenecks and create a more dynamic distribution network,” he noted.
The funding, particularly the investments in zero-emission projects, which account for nearly 40% of the port and freight infrastructure program awards, builds on a partnership between the governments of California and Japan announced this March.
This partnership includes collaboration on strategies to cut planet-warming pollution at seaports and establish green shipping corridors, as part of the state’s broader strategy to aggressively combat and adapt to climate change.
“This game-changing grant will make a tremendous difference in our efforts to bring more business and jobs to the harbor, enhance the efficiency of cargo movement and accelerate the Port of Long Beach’s ongoing transformation to zero-emission operations,” said Port of Long Beach CEO, Mario Cordero.
