Tag: Port of Los Angeles

Despite billions of dollars spent, California’s overall infrastructure has not improved over the past six years, according to a report released earlier this month.

The report from the California Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers looked at 17 categories of infrastructure statewide – including Los Angeles County – and gave the state a cumulative C- grade. That’s the same grade the ASCE section gave to California in its last report card on California’s infrastructure back in 2019.

Overall, the report found improvements in six categories – including aviation, ports and rail – but found deterioration in most of the rest, including drinking water supplies, energy and stormwater management.

“(This report) highlights both the urgency and the opportunity for us to invest in modernizing and strengthening our systems,” Yaz Emrani, co-chair of the society section’s 2025 Report Card for California’s Infrastructure, said in the announcement of the report card’s release.

Of the 17 categories examined, the one that involves Los Angeles County the most is the ports, given the huge size of the twin San Pedro Bay ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Together those two ports handle more than one-third of containerized cargo entering the United States.

In 2019, the ASCE’s California section gave a C+ grade to the state’s ports. This year, that grade rose to a B. In explaining the improvement, this year’s report cited factors such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s award through its Clean Ports Infrastructure program of more than $1 billion to seven California ports. This is on top of hundreds of millions of dollars in port revenues going towards clean infrastructure such as boosting dockside electric charging capability for both container vessels and trucks.

Just as with the ports, California’s rail infrastructure improved from a C grade in 2019 to a B grade in this month’s report card. According to the report card’s grade explanation, enough new rail projects have been completed to meet current demand. In Los Angeles County, rail projects that have wrapped up in that time span include the Metro K Line, the A Line extension from Glendora to Pomona and – just a few months from now – the Metro D Line extension under Wilshire Boulevard from Western Avenue to La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

In 2019, the report card gave the state’s drinking water infrastructure a C grade. But in this month’s report, that dropped to a D+.

The report blamed aging water pipelines that leak and rupture with increased frequency. It noted that at least $11.5 billion is needed for essential immediate upgrades but that only about $3.5 billion is currently available. The situation is exacerbated by the repeated cycles of droughts and floods made more intense by a warming climate.

The state’s energy infrastructure fared among the worst, with D grades in both 2019 and this year. While the state is making progress in transitioning to renewable energy supplies, the report said both the reliability of the transmission grid and of the supplies are strained by rising demand from the proliferation of data centers and larger numbers of electric vehicles. Complicating everything is the challenge posed by wildfire risks. The billions of dollars in additional expenditures to deal with these challenges cannot be managed by ratepayers alone, the report said.

Cargo numbers at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach remained strong in August, but officials expect import figures to ease for the remainder of the year.

There are two factors at play. One is that the second half of last year saw unusually high-cargo activity, meaning even a return to normal volumes would represent a “downturn” by comparison. The second is that shippers, likely anxious about shifting trade policies, front-loaded much of their holiday season cargo ahead of time this year.

Gene Seroka, executive director at the Port of L.A., noted that the nearly 2 million containers processed at this port in July and August represented the best two-month stretch of any western hemisphere port.

“Retailers and manufacturers have continued to bring goods in early, both to get ahead of holiday demand and to hedge against any shifts in trade policy,” he said during his monthly media briefing.

“Looking forward,” Seroka added, “I expect container volumes to ease through the rest of 2025 – especially against last year’s unusually high benchmarks. That’s because much of the year-end holiday cargo has already arrived. And economic signals like slowing job growth and lingering inflation are making both importers and consumers a bit more cautious.”

Dockworkers at the Port of L.A. in August processed 958,355 cargo containers, while those at the Port of Long Beach handled 901,846 containers. Respectively, these numbers were down about 2,000 containers and 12,000 containers from last year.

Broken down, 504,514 loaded imports moved through L.A. – a 1% decrease. Meanwhile, the 440,318 imports through Long Beach dropped 3.6%. On the loaded export side, L.A. moved 127,379 containers – up 5% – and Long Beach moved 95,960 – down 8.3%. The remaining sum represents empty containers moving in either direction.

The combined figure of more than 1.86 million containers moved in August was the third highest volume this year.

The back-and-forth nature of tariffs this year has shifted trans-Pacific shipping patterns, provoking a rush to get goods to the U.S. before a trade war develops. The administration of President Donald Trump has particularly focused on China in terms of forming a new trade agreement.

“Shifting trade policies continue to create uncertainty for businesses and consumers,” said Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Mario Cordero in a statement. “Our Supply Chain Information Highway digital tracker is projecting our peak shipping season to be on pace with last year as retailers start to stock their warehouses in preparation for the winter holidays.”

Cargo dwell times – the period in which containers offloaded from ships are loaded onto trucks or railcars to be moved – remained brisk in August and represented varied improvements from last year.

Truck-bound cargo had an average dwell time of 2.73 days, essentially in line with most of the year. Rail-bound cargo had average dwell times of 4.98 days, in keeping with recent months but a significant improvement from last August’s 8.2 days.

“San Pedro Bay marine terminals have demonstrated their ability to handle containerized cargo efficiently, even accounting for high cargo volumes throughput this summer,” said Natasha Villa, external affairs

manager of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, in a statement. “The ability to maintain steady truck dwell times and further reduce rail dwell reflects the strong coordination between marine terminals, trucking partners, and railroads, ensuring that supply chains remain reliable during peak shipping season.”