Infrastructure Bonds to Support Port/Goods Movement Improvements in NorCal

I attended the NorCal Trade Corridor Coalition Meeting on Tuesday at the Port of Oakland. It was a full house with at least 50 attendees from the public and private sectors, representing jurisdictions all over Northern and Central California. The goal is to develop a list of project proposals that could be funded by the $2 billion infrastructure bond funds that were approved by voters last year. It seems that there is a lot of competition between Northern and Southern California for these funds, which will be used to improve ports and goods movement infrastructure. The Southern California ports already have a list of projects lined up and ready to go, while the Northern CA groups have not yet come to agreement on a specific list of projects. The NorCal Trade Corridor Coalition was started to bring together a wide variety of interests in the region, to help determine what the projects should be. $2 billion seems like a huge amount of money, but when it comes to transportation infrastructure, especially in a huge state like California, it's really not. Several people made remarks, including Omar Benjamin, director of the Port of Oakland; Jeff Brown and Norman Fassler-Katz from the California State Senate (representing Senator Lowenthal and the Senate Subcommittee on Goods Movement); Tom Addison from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District; and representatives from several county Councils of Governments. Sacramento COG was represented by Pete Hathaway, director of transportation planning. The meeting lasted just over two hours and was followed by a reception at GSC Logistics, a freight forwarder with offices in the Port building. I was just there as an observer, but was impressed by the number of people and organizations represented, and also by the interest from the private sector. I'll be curious to follow this project and see what happens in the future. Next meeting is May 22, but that's the date of the NCWTC's Consular Corps Luncheon.