A proposed barge network in Northern California is a radical maritime change of attitude.
Three Northern California ports are combining in a nifty business venture to help banish the region's maritime blues – one that would solve a growing transportation headache the politicians are avoiding and which could serve as a model for innovation and thinking outside the container.
And, if the project goes through there will be a mighty roar of approval from 10 million Californian citizens.
Oakland, Stockton and the river port of Sacramento are asking for $60 million help in federal transport stimulus funds (Recovery and Reinvestment Act) to establish a cargo barge network, with ocean going vessels tying up in Oakland and their cargoes then being ferried by barge to the other two.
Geographical note. Sacramento is served by the river of the same name that feeds into the San Francisco Bay 80 miles away while Stockton is at the end of a deepwater channel that branches off (more or less) close to the Sacramento River.
Oakland also plans to install "cold ironing" (shoreside power) so that ships can plug straight into the electricity grid. That's the main reason for the port needing the lion's share, $28 million, with Sacramento getting about $9 million and Stockton $19 million (figures have been rounded out).
The two smaller ports will need to install special mobile cranes to lift the cargo from the barges
So why barges in the first place? Only smaller sizes of ships can use the Sacramento River, mostly bulkers, and certainly not post-Panamax. The result is that almost 90 percent of the cargo traffic to the city, official residence of the Governator (i.e. the state capital), moves by road along one freeway, mostly from Oakland. Some estimates put that at a minimum of 145,000 trucks a year. Which is where the thanks of millions of Californians comes in – that highway is appallingly congested and shifting the traffic to barges will gladden many people's hearts as well as allow them to breathe cleaner air.
For Stockton, the barges will replace the bulkers that now serve the port.
Cost comparisons being bandied around claim that barge rates are about 55 percent cheaper than rail (another option for Sacramento) and 95 percent lower than truck. Fuel usage is 500 miles per gallon of diesel for a barge as against 200 miles for rail and 60 for a truck. A convoy of 15 barges carries as much as 1,000 trucks.
The total cost of setting up the system is $65 million, which means that the government is being asked to shell out almost 90 percent of the money, which inflames the diehards who see the sinister influence of Washington over private enterprise.
Less reactionary types have seen the future and know that this type of public-private partnership is a pioneering investment conduit. After all, the great infrastructure advance of the last 50 years, the network of federal highways, was due to Washington (most people credit Eisenhower) poking its nose in.