BOAT TOUR OFFERS UNIQUE SHORELINE VIEW OF DIVERSE ACTIVITY AT RICHMOND’S PORT

City's Port Is One of Largest Cargo Handlers
 in Northern California

Richmond 10/30/01 – More than 150 city and county officials, business leaders and community representatives from Richmond and Contra Costa County recently boarded a private boat for a shoreline luncheon tour on the calm waters of San Francisco Bay. The tour aboard the San Francisco Spirit was an opportunity for the Port of Richmond to showcase the diverse activities that take place at the city-owned port, and their impact on the local and regional economy.

Richmond boasts 32 miles of shoreline, unmatched by any other bay area city, along the northern and eastern reaches of the San Francisco Bay. Richmond owns five terminals with deep-water berths, operated by tenants that handle a broad range of bulk and liquid commodities, automobiles, containers, and diversified break-bulk cargo.

The Port also accommodates a number of privately owned terminals that handle similar commodities.

The Port of Richmond is strategically located for land access. Interstate 80 offers transcontinental transport, and Interstate 580 passes directly through the Port area. Terminals at the Richmond Port have access to rail service provided by Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads.  Rail transport from Richmond is only three days to or from Chicago and mid-west markets, and five days by truck.

A number of representatives from Port tenants were on hand to point out their operations, giving passengers aboard the Spirit a unique view of shoreline activity that most people never get a chance to experience.

Among the companies on tour, Tudor-Saliba is handling the retrofit of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Levin-Richmond handles a wide variety of bulk materials from cottonseed to petroleum coke. National Gypsum supplies sheetrock to the bay area homebuilding industry.  And CEMEX provides raw cement for infrastructure throughout the bay area.

Channels at the Richmond Port have been deepened, allowing the Port to accommodate even larger cargo vessels. As intermodal rail services are further developed, automobiles are expected to continue to play an important role in Richmond’s maritime activities. Containerized cargo is expected to continue to play an increasing role in diversifying Richmond’s cargo operations.

Additionally, the future of the port is encouraging due to positive land-based factors, such as availability of land for port-related activities, recently improved highway access, and a growing number of rail connections for the transport of cargo directly to and from terminal facilities. At the same time, Port Director Jim Matzorkis says the new century brings new challenges for ports across the United States.

Trade is growing at unprecedented rates. Containerized cargo volumes are projected to double in the next decade and triple in the next twenty years. Ports throughout our country are seeking solutions for dealing with this growth. The bay area ports will play a key role in addressing these developments and the Port of Richmond will continue to be a growing economic center for this City and our region. The Port of Richmond welcomes these challenges, and looks forward to working with our partner companies, the National Park Service, and our future shoreline developers to expand our economic maritime prosperity and continue our mission to make Richmond a quality place to live, learn, work, play and do business.

Sponsors of the shoreline tour included the Council of Industries, Agra Foundations Incorporated, Bay Ship & Yacht, BP ARCO, California Oils Corp., Castrol Inc., CEMEX, Chevron, Foss Maritime Company, Hanson Aggregates, IMTT, Jordan, Woodman, Dobson, Levin-Richmond Terminal Corp., Manson Construction Company, Marwood Marine Company, Inc., National Gypsum Company, Shore Terminals, SIMSMETAL America, Stevedoring Services of America, The Pasha Group, and Tudor-Saliba/Koch/Tidewater JV.