The European economy may be stagnant, but Asian economies seem to be doing somewhat better, and West Coast ports are making sure they have enough room to handle future freight carrier traffic. Both Oakland and Vancouver, BC were in the news this week looking to expand their ports.
The Port of Oakland signed a deal to take over part of an old Navy base and convert it into warehouse and distribution centers; there will be some work needed to stabilize the ground, for part of the old base was build on fill material which is a disaster waiting to happen during the next earthquake to hit the area; the infrastructure work for the area is slated to cost a million dollars an acre, but prime property in the Bay Area will be worth that kind of money.
One of Oakland’s visions is to set up the kind of intermodal network with the Midwest that the LA and Long Beach ports have with areas like Dallas and El Paso. If trade to Asia continues to grow, that might be a viable option for shippers looking for container transport to and from the center of the country.
Meanwhile, there is more going on in Vancouver than the Olympics. Most of the Winter Games development has been at ski resorts away from the coastal areas, so the port authority has been busy buying up waterfront property in metro Vancouver in order to keep it from being turned into residential areas. Waterfront property is a prime location for apartments and condos, but a certain amount of that property needs to be available for shipping and shipping-related business, else economic growth in the region will be slowed.
Sources: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?…L#ixzz0fLTT5yhq
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nation…article1460900/
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