Pioneer Partners has announced plans for a new “Mojave Inland Port in Kern County, California. While a new intermodal terminal would take years, if not more than a decade, to plan and permit in Los Angeles or Long Beach, The Kern County Board of Supervisors says the site is “fully permitted” and have issued a proclamation to support the “approved site plans for the Mojave Inland Port”.

The site of the new terminal is 410 acres of industrial land zoned M-2 (Medium Industrial) and M-3 (Heavy Industrial) at the southeast corner of State Highways 14 and 58, some 90 miles from the Port of Long Beach. The location has direct access to the State Highway system off what Kern Country described as “an under-utilised exit ramp” and is bisected by the Lone Pine Branch of the Union Pacific Railroad.

“Operations will be centred on direct rail service from the Ports of Los Angeles (POLA) and Long Beach (POLB) through the Alameda Corridor and up to Mojave. Direct ship to rail loaded, double-stack container trains could arrive at the inland port in unit trains up to two miles long. Containers will be transloaded straight to waiting over-the-road trucks for delivery to businesses and markets through the region. Empty shipping containers will be relocated from highway trucks or the on-site storage area onto trains for the return trip to POLA/POLB,” the request to Kern County noted.

Richard Kellogg, Chair of Pioneer Partners, said the company has been working with the existing Mojave Air and Space Port, which operates an aircraft and space facility nearby, to develop a common vision for intermodal logistics. “Mojave has a combination of highway, railroad, air and land assets that is rarely found anywhere in the United States and is unique in southern California” he said in a letter to Kern County.” We believed that one day the value of this combination would become apparent when the San Pedro Bay ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach ran out of room. That day is here.”

Kern County agreed. “The Mojave Inland Port is a fully permitted industrial site that will provide a solution for California goods movement at the ports,” said Lorelei Oviatt, Kern County Director of Planning. “From providing the green energy California needs to the new world of CCS and Carbon Management industries, as well as providing the most environmentally protective oil and gas permitting, Kern County is the place for the solutions California needs for economic growth.”

Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero* also endorsed the new inland terminal. “The Port of Long Beach has seen record container traffic in recent years, which shows no sign of slowing down,” he said. “Being surrounded by the dense urban areas of Long Beach and South Los Angeles, there is limited real estate available. The Mojave Inland Port is the type of innovative solution that will alleviate congestion and allow dockworkers to do their jobs more efficiently, getting goods to businesses and consumers faster. It will also ensure the Port of Long Beach can adapt to growing demand and continue to be an engine of economic growth.”

Big questions remain, however, about the cost of adding an intermodal journey for the new terminal’s target market. Operating a rail service for a haul of 90 miles, then using trucking for the last mile(s) has always been viewed as too expensive in a west coast environment. The shipper ultimately has to pay for the rail lifts, and the rail service, plus a trucking service. Pioneer is now promoting the inland port concept as a more efficient service with environmental benefits.

“The new method of moving containers, used by other large ports such as Rotterdam, London, and Singapore, also has a significantly lower environmental impact than the current system, which involves multiple moves of each container by truck, many of which are forced to idle for hours while waiting to receive and offload containers,” Pioneer said. “By shifting more of this traffic onto rail lines and reducing the amount of time trucks must wait at the port, California can process an increasing number of containers while producing less air pollution, a perennial concern in the Los Angeles basin.”

The new inland port will require improvements for vehicle access, gate systems, container storage and yard gantry cranes, but there are no details at this point. The proposal noted that while proposed improvements “are not phased, development of the site will occur over time, at a schedule dictated by traffic volumes out of the port.” Initial operations will require a crew of 20-30 people to service some 200 truck calls per day. At 3M TEU annual capacity the terminal would see some 3,600 truck calls per day. Based on the ratio of truck calls to throughput, initial capacity would be somewhere in the region of 166,000 TEU per annum.

The plan is to break ground in 2023 and be “fully operational” in 2024. That is moving fast, but there is an expectation that the State of California will support the development. Kern County noted that in October 2021 California Governor Gavin Newsome signed an Executive Order that, among other things, “directed California stage agencies to take near and long-term actions to address national port congestion and supply chain challenges.” California has enacted legislation that provides policy direction for the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) to implement Newsom’s Port and Freight Infrastructure Programme.

*Since initial publication this article has been amended to remove an incorrect reference to Mario Cordero being the outgoing Executive Director of the Port of Long Beach. Last week the port of Long Beach welcomed Sharon L. Weissman as its new Harbour Commission President, but there has been no change to Mario Cordero’s position as Executive Director. WorldCargo News apologises for the error.