Congestion that has slowed goods movement to a crawl at U.S. ports such as Los Angeles and Long Beach will continue to be an ongoing issue for years, until the nation invests in long-term maritime infrastructure, Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission Mario Cordero said Thursday.
“Congestion has been a problem long before labor negotiations … and will continue to be a challenge,” Cordero said.
An estimated $78 billion of President Barack Obama’s $478 billion, six-year surface transportation reauthorization proposal has been slated for infrastructure related to the port/freight network, the FMC chairman said.
Meanwhile, the rest of world is investing an estimated $2 trillion in the next six to eight years in port-related projects, with 60 percent of that investment coming from Asia, Cordero said. “Compare that to what we’re doing here, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”