Long Beach Stretches Congestion Relief Depot Use

zoom The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has unanimously approved an extra six months of operation for a temporary container storage facility on the harbor district’s undeveloped Pier S to help California ports terminals deal with a backlog of cargo. The action temporarily extends the life of the existing 30-acre storage depot that opened in December 2014, and also allows for the storage of loaded cargo containers and chassis in addition to the empty containers already permitted there. Conditions at the port have changed since the storage depots opening. A tentative agreement has been reached on the dockworkers contract, federal regulators granted permission for Long Beach and its neighbor the Port of Los Angeles to collaborate on congestion relief, and private chassis fleets in the region agreed to pool their resources. But terminals are in need of additional space as they try to eliminate a backlog of cargo that built up over months of congestion. With the initial time period for the container storage depot set to expire March 31, the port acted to expand the use of the area at Pier S, with Pasha Stevedoring & Terminals continuing to operate the storage depot.