Completion of Long Beach ports automated terminal hailed as creating a new bar for the industry – LA Daily News

Long Beach Harbor Commission Vice President Sharon L. Weissman speaks at a news conference to celebrate the completion of the new Long Beach Container Terminal in Long Beach on Friday, August 20, 2021. The terminal underwent 10 years of construction to become what port officials say is one of the most technologically advanced container terminals in the world. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

LBCT CEO Anthony Otto speaks at a news conference to celebrate the completion of the new Long Beach Container Terminal in Long Beach on Friday, August 20, 2021. Equipped with nearly all electric and near-zero emissions equipment, LBCT at Middle Harbor represents an industry standard for sustainable development that is designed to strengthen competitiveness, improve cargo flow and enhance air quality amid an era of significant growth at the nations second-busiest container seaport. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

LBCT CEO Anthony Otto speaks at a press conference celebrating completion of the $1.5 billion Middle Harbor redevelopment project on Friday, August 20, 2021. The terminal underwent 10 years of construction and establishes a new bar for the industry, Otto said. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Long Beach Port Executive Director Mario Cordero called the Long Beach Container Terminal one of the biggest and most challenging maritime projects in our history. The completion of the project was celebrated at a news conference at the facility on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

The Long Beach Container Terminal, more than 10 years in the making, was hailed as one of the cleanest and most efficient ports worldwide at a celebration marking the projects completion on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

The Port of Long Beach held a news conference in celebration of project completion for the new Long Beach Container Terminal in Long Beach on Friday, August 20, 2021. The terminal underwent 10 years of construction to become what is being hailed as one of the most technologically advanced container terminals in the world. Equipped with nearly all electric and near-zero emissions equipment, LBCT at Middle Harbor, port officials said, represents an industry standard for sustainable development that will strengthen competitiveness, improve cargo flow and dramatically enhance air quality amid an era of significant growth at the nations second-busiest container seaport. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Stacks of shipping containers await processing at the newly completed Long Beach Container Terminal at the Port of Long Beach. The completion of the groundbreaking terminal was hailed at a news conference on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Automated cranes move shipping containers at the Long Beach Container Terminal. Hailed as the greenest and most efficient terminal in the U.S., the LBCT took over 10 years to plan, design and build at the Port of Long Beach. A celebration marking the final completion of the facility was held on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. Equipped with nearly all electric and near-zero emissions equipment, LBCT at Middle Harbor, port officials said, represents an industry standard for sustainable development that will strengthen competitiveness, improve cargo flow and dramatically enhance air quality amid an era of significant growth at the nations second-busiest container seaport. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Automated cranes move container terminals overhead at the newly completed, $1.5 billion Long Beach Container Terminal at the Port of Long Beach. A celebration marking the completion was held Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Two gantry cranes and automated stacking cranes are delivered to the Long Beach Container Terminal as the ports Middle Harbor project expands. After 10 years, work was finalized in June 2021. A celebration was held on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (Courtesy Photo, Port of Long Beach)

Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero, speaks at a news conference to celebrate the completion of the new Long Beach Container Terminal in Long Beach on Friday, August 20, 2021. The terminal took over 10 years to plan, design and build and is being hailed as one of the most technologically advanced container terminals in the world. Equipped with nearly all electric and near-zero emissions equipment, LBCT at Middle Harbor is des Cordero gave thanks to the two engineers behind the project, Thomas Baldwin, center, and Monique Lebrun. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Long Beach port officials dwarfed by the behemoth cranes, ships and stacks of shipping containers surrounding them hailed the final completion of what is billed as the greenest shipping terminal in the nation at a news conference on Friday, Aug. 20.

After a decade of construction, the $1.5 billion Long Beach Container Terminal and Middle Harbor project, built and opened in phases, is finally complete after finishing touches were recently made on wharf and backland areas.

Were introducing to the world the state-of-the-art terminal, one of the wonders of the maritime industry, said Long Beach Port Executive Director Mario Cordero.

It was also, he added, one of the biggest and most challenging maritime projects in our history.

The celebration, which was set to culminate with a party and fireworks later that evening on the terminal grounds, came on the heels of the ports completion last fall of the new Long Beach International Gateway Bridge, the $1.5 billion successor to the Gerald Desmond Bridge.

The terminal, at Pier F, combined two aging, 1950s-era shipping terminals into one, creating upgraded wharfs, greater water access, more storage areas, an expanded on-dock rail yard and space to accommodate the worlds newest and largest ships.

This truly is a modern marvel, said Long Beach harbor commission Vice President Sharon Weissman.

Receiving special recognition were Tom Baldwin, director of program management, and Monique Lebrun, senior program engineer, who did the lions share of engineering work on the project over the past decade.

These mammoth projects were needed to succeed in the highly competitive world of trade, Weissman said. To remain competitive for cargo and jobs, its critical that we modernize our infrastructure. The Long Beach Container Terminal is yet another example of how were getting bigger, operating smarter and operating greener.

Not as enthusiastic over automated terminals like LBCT have been the 15,000 longshore workers, including part-time casuals, who man the docks in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the busiest and second busiest in the nation, respectively.

Terminal automation poses big changes and likely some job losses in those dockworker ranks.

LBCT, for example, features remotely run electric cranes gliding back and forth and a computer-controlled stacking system. Multiple containers can be handled by the cranes at one time.

And more automation is coming to both ports.

In May, Pier T terminal operators in the Port of Long Beach announced their plans to pursue automation. And in the Port of Los Angeles, both APM Terminals, on Pier 400, and TraPac are at least partially automated.

Anthony Otto, CEO of LBCT, said $9 million was spent before the terminal opened to retrain members of the workforce for newer jobs that would be needed.

I dont know if its a one-for-one exchange, Otto said when asked if employment numbers were equal to what they were previously. Some traditional jobs may not be being done.

Some additional jobs, more high-skilled jobs, were created, he said, adding that the union was part of the collaboration in opening the terminal. We cant do this job without the (International Longshore and Warehouse Union); we dont want to. Theyre our workforce, they always will be.

Cordero, for his part, framed the modernization as necessary for the future, of the port and the economy especially since 51,000 jobs are directly or indirectly connected to the trade hub.

We have the fourth industrial revolution, Cordero said, and the name of the game for us is to make sure we are prepared and that we prepare the workforce to be the workforce of the future.

Building the terminal involved going on several global excursions for research.

This model, while certainly new here in North America, some of it was being done in Europe for quite some time, he said during the news conference. So our endeavor, when designing this facility by traveling the world a number of times over, was taking the best attributes of a lot of facilities in Europe and Asia with regard to design and technology, both the existing and emerging technologies as this would take years to build and we didnt want it to be outdated by the time it was finished.

New twists were added to what was already being done in Europe and Asia, Otto said, which have enhanced it and brought it to a level where I believe its the next best design and most technologically advanced facility on the planet at this point.

The efficiency, he said, can be seen in shorter truck turn times and the largest on-dock rail system in North America. Its an edge that is important, he said, as import cargo volumes continue to increase, forcing ships to park outside the ports sometimes for days before being processed.

We have definitely set the new bar for our industry, Otto said. That additional capacity means more cargo, which means more supply chain jobs, which means a strengthening of the regional and national economy.

Construction on the Middle Harbor redevelopment project began in 2011.

Both the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are eyeing a 2030 deadline for terminal equipment to meet an overall zero-emissions deadline. The automated electric equipment at LBCT meets that standard 10 years early.

As cargo numbers continue ramping up, keeping emissions under control will only become a larger concern.

A record 9 million twenty-foot-container units are expected to move through the Port of Long Beach by the end of 2021.

What you see behind me, Otto said as he stood in front of a line of automated cranes, is the third and final phase of a project that took more than 12 years to complete. Once in full production over the next few months, it will bring with it an additional 1 million TEUs of capacity to the Port of Long Beach and bring this facilitys capability up to 3.5 million TEUs per year.

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Completion of Long Beach ports automated terminal hailed as creating a new bar for the industry - LA Daily News