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Southern California transportation agencies need $2.2 billion to help improve the flow of goods moving throughout the region, agency officials told members of the California Transportation Commission (CTC) during a Trade Corridor Improvement Fund hearing held yesterday in Los Angeles.

The money would help fund 53 transportation improvement projects, ranging from grade separations and crossing improvements, to road widening and reconstruction projects, as well as programs designed to improve cargo delivery.

The request was made by members of the Southern California Trade Corridor Improvement Funds Working Group, which includes the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, Alameda Corridor East Authority, Riverside County Transportation Commission, San Bernardino Associated Governments, Orange County Transportation Authority, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Ventura County Transportation Commission, Southern California Regional Rail Authority and Southern California Association of Governments.

Working group members noted that the L.A.-area ports handle 85 percent of California’s containerized cargo, and seven times more international cargo than northern California ports. In addition, southern California’s road and rail systems handle 75 percent of the state’s export cargo annually.

Yesterday’s hearing was the first of many planned throughout the state by the CTC, which will determine which projects receive Trade Corridor Improvement Funds that were approved by voters in 2006 as part of the Proposition 1B measure to upgrade high-volume transportation corridors.