And on top of All of THAT... infrastructure. Oh, yeah, we need that... This is the current view around the Port of Los Angeles. Most of the problem is that these ships ... these cargo ships are now twice the size they were 20 years ago. We haven't upgraded for 70 years, so these ships don't fit like they should. And once we unload them, we don't have the trains to take the cargo out of the docks -- or trucks. Some of these cargo ships have been floating out there for more than 3 months.
From the YouTube Page
Footage of the Port Los Angeles/Long Beach anchorage area with container vessels awaiting entry.On February 8, the Marine Exchange of Southern California reported that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had set a new record for the number of ships on berth. There was a total of 108 ships in the port, which had increased by two from the prior day. They reported a record total of 62 ships on berth of which 32 were containerships, which was also a new record for the port.The number of containerships in the anchorage however was trending downward which the port officials took as a positive sign that the backlog was declining. At the beginning of the week, 30 boxships were still waiting for berths down from 40 the prior week. After having had to open up drift areas for the first time in 16 years a the end of January, the Marine Exchange reported that no ships were in the drift positions.Despite the signs of progress, the Port of Los Angeles’s Signal port optimizer data is still recording an average of eight days in the anchorage for a containership waiting for space at the terminals. TEU volumes were also off slightly to just over 90,000 units moving through the Port of Los Angeles this week, but in a sign of the coming volumes, the port optimizer is projecting that volumes will jump back to between 160,000 and 170,000 TEUs for each of the next three weeks.Reflecting the anticipated volume increases, the Marine Exchange reported yesterday that the anchorage was again full with 50 ships and that they had to again open the drift areas, places where the ships remain with power in effect circling waiting for an appropriate anchorage to become available. With 15 additional ships due to arrive today and only six due to move from the anchorage to the berth, the Marine Exchange reported that it needed several more drift areas to accommodate the increasing number of ships.
... so we are in serious need of major infrastructure. Soon. Now.
