LA port’s leader outlines ambitious plans in annual talk in San Pedro

The Port of Los Angeles will see a flurry of activity on several fronts in the coming year, including environmental initiatives and multiple development projects.

That’s according to POLA Executive Director Gene Seroka, who presented his ninth consecutive State of the Port addess in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 550 industry leaders on Wednesday, Jan. 10. Seroka’s Port of Long Beach counterpart, CEO Mario Cordero, will give his annual State of the Port address on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center.

Seroka, who was introduced by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, laid out plans for infrastructure improvements, community attractions on both the Wilmington and San Pedro waterfronts, and an expectation of cargo numbers rebounding through 2024.

“The good news is that global trade is now edging up and we are looking forward to a return to more normal cargo volume levels in the year ahead,” Seroka said in his luncheon speech, sponsored by the Pacific Maritime Shipping Association.

The port expects cargo volumes for the past year to total more than 8.6 million container units, Seroka said. That’s 13% below the total in 2022. But, he said, the last five months of the year were especially strong and there was also an uptick in market share.

Environmental initiatives will loom large this year, Seroka said, as the port scrambles to meet deadlines in 2030 and 2035 for zero-emissions fleets for terminal equipment and drayage trucks, respectively.

“Since I spoke to you last January, the number of ZE trucks in our drayage registry grew from 56 to 195,” Seroka said at the World Cruise Center in San Pedro. “That’s progress but still a very small percentage of the 20,000 trucks that serve our ports.”

The ports of LA and Long Beach plan to boost those numbers using incentives under the Clean Truck Fund Rate program, which has collected more than $115 million to date to help facilitate a turnover to cleaner trucks serving the overall port complex.

Challenges, though, are numerous, Seroka acknowledged.

“Assembly lines for those future ZE trucks aren’t fully ramped up, and the price is beyond the reach of most of our truckers. But keep in mind we’re creating a market that doesn’t exist yet, just like we did with shore-side power 20 years ago.”

At that time, the port was the first in the world, Seroka said, to “plug a container ship into shoreside power.

“People thought we were crazy for investing tens of millions of dollars to electrify our berths in an attempt to reduce our in-port emissions,” he said. “Yet, it worked.”

The audience broke out in applause at several points, including for Seroka’s updates on the waterfront developments.

Seroka announced that the $77 million Wilmington Waterfront Promenade will have a grand opening on Feb. 3, and the port will host its annual Lunar New Year Festival there later in the evening. There’s more to come, including an upgrade of Banning’s Landing Community Center and a future youth aquatic center.

Later in 2024, Seroka said, the port will break ground on the $65 million Avalon Promenade pedestrian bridge and gateway project, which will connect the Wilmington community to the waterfront. That project, Seroka said, is set to be finished in 2027 and will be “an instant landmark.”

The projects, he said, “are nothing short of transformational for the Wilmington community.”

Progress is also moving forward on the 42-acre West Harbor retail and dining development in San Pedro, Seroka said.

The first phase of that development is expected to open in 2025.

It will include 375,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor retail, entertainment and dining space — “even a dog park that will offer draft beer and other refreshments,” Seroka said. “Those beers are for the people, of course. And that’s just phase one.”

Seroka also touched on the progress of several other infrastructure projects, including:

• A $73 million Pier 400 Corridor expansion, expected to be completed this year.
• The $195 million Terminal Island Maritime Support Facility will see more roadway, rail and site design work.
• A $52 million on-dock rail yard expansion at Pier 300 Fenix Marine Services terminal is set to break ground in 2025.
• Seismic upgrades will be made at the Shell Oil and PBF Energy liquid bulk facilities at the port.

In other remarks, Seroka said:

• AltaSea has broken ground on a 180,000-square foot building at City Dock No. 1, near San Pedro’s Outer Harbor. The $28 million project, he said, will transform port warehouse space into a new marine and blue-tech research, education and technology campus.
• A redesigned Harbor Boulevard on-ramp and off-ramp that will provide a needed upgrade between the Vincent Thomas Bridge and the 110 Freeway will break ground in 2024. The project, Seroka said, will help separate “truck and commuter traffic while making it easier for all of us to get to where we’re going.”
• The port’s pleasure cruise industry is booming, Seroka said, with 219 cruises setting sail from the port in 2023 and taking a record 1.3 million passengers on vacation trips. That shattered the previous record set in 2005, Seroka added, by almost 100,000 passengers. The port will capitalize on that momentum, he said, and plans to issue a Request for Proposals in the coming months to build a new Outer Harbor cruise and conference center.
• Plans are accelerating to participate in a green hydrogen hub, jump-started by an announcement last fall of up to $300 million in federal grants that will include funding for the San Pedro Bay port complex, which also includes the neighboring Port of Long Beach. Both ports plan to match funding with up to $300 million in combined investments.
• Green Shipping Corridors have also picked up speed. The LA port has now entered into partnerships with eight counterparts in China, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam. The corridors focus on reducing carbon emissions using zero-emission trucks, terminal equipment and, gradually, cleaner ocean vessels for products coming in through key international shipping routes.
• The port of LA and Long Beach also continue work on a Goods Movement Training Campus — in partnership with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Pacific Maritime Association and California — to provide job training. The design of that campus is expected to get underway this year.

Despite the myriad environmental initiatives both ports have undertaken, activists continue to press for more efforts on that front, often taking aim at the pollution coming from the twin ports and how it has impacted neighboring areas.

Seroka, in his speech, acknowledged that the ports saw increased emissions during the pandemic for two years — but added that the air quality scores “are once again improving.”

“While we took some criticism for the previous spike in admissions,” he said, “we acknowledge it. That said, everyone should know that the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles take our environmental goals seriously.”

Following Seroka’s speech, Los Angeles Councilmember Tim McOsker, whose 15th District includes the port, said he was pleased by what he heard.

“I was impressed with the commitment to not just build up the business (end),” he said, “but also for protecting good jobs and (environmental) sustainability.”

Doug Epperhart of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council agreed.

Past port updates, he said, were “all about how many containers were moved. And that was it.”

Now, Epperhart said, the recreational waterfront and environmental progress the port has focused on has changed the landscape and its relationship with the broader community.

“You’ve got to give them credit,” he said.