Ports Again Delay New Cargo Container Fees
The Port of Long Beach has decided to delay collecting a cargo container fee that would help pay to improve roads, bridges and rail tracks around the port. The Port of Los Angeles is expected to make a similar move on the fee, which was to go into effect Jan. 1.
On Dec. 1, the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners voted to delay by six months a $30-per-40-foot-container fee to help upgrade the surrounding rail networks, make road improvements and replace the Gerald Desmond Bridge, which connects Long Beach, Calif., to Terminal Island, where both ports have container terminals.
The delay was prompted after port officials saw that many of these projects are still in the planning phase. “Because of the extra time needed to complete the planning and approval process for these many projects, the ports felt it was sensible to delay the implementation of the fee,” said Christopher Lytle, deputy executive director of the Port of Long Beach. “We’ll reassess the situation in six months to see if it makes sense to start the fee then.”
The infrastructure fee, to be in effect seven years, is expected to generate $1.4 billion for the port projects. The ports are hoping to receive matching funds from the state’s Proposition 1B measure for the various projects.
This is the second time the ports have delayed a fee. A new $70-per-40-foot-container fee to pay for the ports’ Clean Truck Program, replacing polluting diesel trucks that call at the ports, was to have gone into effect on Nov. 17. It was delayed indefinitely. —Deborah Belgum
