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Earlier this week, the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners approved a $750 million terminal renovation project at the Port of Long Beach, Calif., that includes major rail upgrades and air pollution-reducing measures.

The project calls for adding 65,000 feet of track, which will enable the port to move one-third of all Middle Harbor cargo by train. The port’s switching railroad, Pacific Harbor Line Inc., interchanges with BNSF Railway Co. and Union Pacific Railroad.

The port plans to create a single 345-acre terminal by merging two existing facilities — the Long Beach Container Terminal and California United Terminals — and filling in slips to add 51 acres. Projected to start by year’s end and take 10 years to complete, the multi-phased project is designed to double the existing terminals’ cargo-moving capacity and reduce air emissions by 50 percent.

The port plans to tap technologies and implement practices aimed at reducing or controlling air pollution, such as by using alternative fuels and “clean-air” equipment at rail yards; fueling all vessels with clean-burning, low-sulfur options; employing low-emission cargo-handling equipment; and requiring all trucks serving the terminal to meet the “toughest EPA emission standards,” port officials said in a prepared statement.

Meanwhile, the Port of Vancouver USA received word late last month that it would receive $2.5 million in federal stimulus funds for the West Vancouver Freight Access rail project.

The $137 million project calls for improving unit train access into the port to reduce congestion in BNSF's Vancouver Yard and along the Class I’s north-south mainline by as much as 40 percent. The project is slated for completion in spring 2010.

The port also plans to build a unit train facility at the new Terminal 5, which is scheduled to launch operations in late summer.