The Port of Long Beach (POLB) on July 18 held a groundbreaking ceremony for its $1.567 billion Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility project, which is slated to double the footprint of the existing rail yard from 82 to 171 acres, and more than triple the Port’s capacity for on-dock rail from 1.5 million to 4.7 million TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units) per year (see video below).
POLB earlier this month awarded Alameda, Calif.-based Stacy & Witbeck the first of 10 construction contracts for the project, which the Port said will “increase efficiency and reduce emissions” by positioning it to move 35% of containerized cargo by rail.
The existing Pier B rail facility serves as a storage and staging area for trains and is said to be a critical juncture in the Port’s rail network. It is primarily used by Anacostia Rail Holding’s Pacific Harbor Line, Inc. (PHL), which provides rail dispatching and switching services for POLB as well as the Port of Los Angeles; both ports are served by Class I railroads Union Pacific and BNSF.
The new Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility will feature a depot for fueling and servicing up to 30 locomotives simultaneously and a full-service staging area to assemble and break down trains up to 10,000 feet long. The overall project will be built in phases with completion scheduled for 2032. Constructing the facility will involve adding more than 130,000 feet of rail, quadrupling the number of tracks from 12 to 48, widening the rail bridge over the Dominguez Channel from two to three tracks, and reconfiguring and improving nearby Pico Avenue and Pier B Street.
To help fund the project, the POLB, to date, has secured $643 million in grants from Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), California Department of Transportation, California Surface Transportation Agency, California Transportation Commission, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Maritime Administration, and U.S. Department of Transportation.
The Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility project is the largest component of the Port’s 10-year capital program, according to POLB. Last month, the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners signed off on a $760 million budget for POLB’s 2025 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, 2024; it is 19.5% higher than the budget adopted last year, due largely to infrastructure projects like the Pier B project and the proposed Pier Wind. The FY2025 capital budget comes in at $368.3 million, 47.2% higher than the prior year, and of that total, $204.9 million is for the Pier B project.
“The Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility will add 130,000 feet of new tracks, build 36 new support tracks and more than double the number of trains leaving the Port to 17 per day,” POLB CEO Mario Cordero said during the groundbreaking event, which included approximately 500 attendees, such as U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg; members of the U.S. Congress and California Legislature; and officials from various California state agencies, Los Angeles County, LACMTA, and International Longshore and Warehouse Union. “These improvements will benefit the entire U.S. supply chain and get us closer to the operational and environmental transformation into a zero-emissions port.”
“The investments made by our local, state and federal partners are key to creating this state-of-the-art rail junction, giving shippers even more reasons to choose the Port of Long Beach as their gateway of choice,” said Long Beach Harbor Commission President Bobby Olvera Jr. “This gathering today [July 18] marks a historic milestone that will bring new jobs and other economic benefits to Long Beach, this state and the nation.”
Buttigieg and other speakers arrived at the event in a passenger railcar hauled by PHL’s Progress Rail EMD® Joule SD40JR battery-electric locomotive, which recently began operating in revenue service. No 50, according to Progress Rail Director of Electrical Systems Sidarta Beltramin, is performing well in day-to-day operations alongside traditional units, sometimes in multiple-unit lashups but mostly as a standalone.
