The Prospects for Developing Inland Logistics Ports in California

An inland container port is an intermodal terminal facility that handles containerized shipments at a site away from a seaport(s). Such facility is typically linked to a deep water port by highways and rail, and operates as a container transfer point between different transportation modes. The development of inland ports has been a growing trend in the United States over the past 25 years.Since the early 2000s, the development of an inland port has been viewed as a long-term solution to the congestion and pollution problems that exist at the San Pedro Bay port complex (SPB), which is home to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. With the anticipated growth in international trade and the rise of mega-ships, the container volumes transiting through SPB ports will continue to grow. The sudden volume imbalance caused by the COVID crisis has shown that the bottlenecks in processing and routing cargo at these ports can grow uncontrollably, lending urgency to the persistent need for inland ports near SPB ports.A number of comprehensive feasibility studies have identified potential inland port locations and their associated regional costs and benefits. Despite the widely acknowledged need to develop inland ports to serve the SPB port complex, as well as financial incentives and large capital expenditures by a number of municipalities and public agencies, the development of such facilities has been generally lagging. Indeed, relative to other major U.S. seaport gateways, there are fewer inland ports serving the West Coast ports.It is generally accepted that strategically placed and efficiently operated inland ports can result in significant efficiency gains for the U.S. logistics system. The purpose of the present study is to assess the prospects and pinpoint the impediments to the creation of inland facilities suitable to the SPB port complex. In order to accomplish this task, we undertake the following analysis:• Identify existing and planned inland ports, including those in neighboring states, their development stage, and their potential role in the SPB logistics infrastructure.• Relying on previous feasibility studies and input from the SPB ports’ stakeholders, we catalog the economic and institutional impediments to the development of inland facilities to serve these ports.• A large portion of the trade volume moving through the SPB ports consists of containerized agricultural exports. We assess the role of existing and planned inland ports in facilitating the growing U.S. containerized agricultural trade