Miami reviews its options
Port users and service providers focus on short-term needs at access workshop
For many businesses that use the Port of Miami, congestion problems at the port need to be fixed'yesterday.
That was one of the overriding messages at a Port of Miami port access workshop August 8. The workshop looked at a number of creative and ambitious solutions to improving cargo flows in and out of the port, yet many of the port customers attending the half-day session noted that most of those solutions will take years to develop. What they want, port users said, is answers on what can be done to improve port access within the next year or two.
'We redirect a lot of cargo to Savannah and Port Everglades during our peak season,' said Theresa Grace, a claims coordinator from the logistics team and Southern Wine & Spirits of South Florida, one of the largest wine and spirits distributors in the U.S. She said the Port of Miami is the most cost effective option for the Miami office, 'but we can't always use it because of the congestion.'
Mark Baker, the South Florida director for the Maersk affiliate APM Terminals, confided that the mass market retailer Lowe's had recently made a decision to begin using the Port of Savannah instead of Miami because of port congestion and traffic problems.
Baker also warned city, county, and port officials attending the workshop that they need to be careful about moves that will add costs to the use of the Port of Miami, just assuming shippers will continue to use the port.
'Florida's a peninsula,' he said, 'and (shippers) can keep going to Jacksonville, Savannah, or Charleston, where they have easy access, just like Port Everglades does.'
He continued that high-volume shippers in Central Florida are often on the fence in terms of choosing a port.
'That business can easily go to Savannah,' he said. 'It's easier to come south out of Savannah than to go north through the traffic in Miami.'
The overwhelming preference in terms of a near-term access solution was the completion of a previously approved 'slip ramp' for I-95 that would simplify access from the Interstate to the Northwest 5th Street and Northwest 6th Street corridor. Those two streets, both one-way streets, run east and west between I-95 and the port entrance.
Truckers now have to use an exit off I-95 that is several blocks away from 5th Street to get into the port. Truck have to negotiate three stop lights just to get going east on 5th, and have to go through a total of seven lights before they reach the port entrance.
A slip ramp would provide a shorter connection between the Interstate and the downtown streets, without taking up the amount of space needed for larger access ramps on the Interstate.
One version of the project was designed and funded a few years ago, but was delayed indefinitely because of community opposition.
Both panelists and audience members at the workshop scoffed at the way a small-but-vocal group of opponents had been able to halt a key project needed to a major economic driver like the port.
'We want immediate action on 5th and 6th streets,' said John Ballestero, the general manager of the Port of Miami Terminal Operating Company (Pomtoc), the main common user terminal at the port. 'It's studied every five years, it was funded five years ago, then it was shelved for whatever reason. Here we have a port with a $16 billion economic impact, generating 110,000 jobs, and 500 people from the community can stop it.'
Barbara Pimentel, the executive vice president of the Florida Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association, also noted that a small group had stopped the I-95 slip ramp, while officials focused on projects like the $1 billion Miami Port Tunnel and other long-term access solutions.
'Things like the port tunnel are a great idea, but we're looking far into the future,' she said. 'We need something to address this problem right now.'
Added Jorge Rovirosa, from the stakeholder Florida Stevedores: 'This port needs the 5th and 6th street project to be effective.'
Craig Miller, a moderator at the workshop who is a principal with TranSystems, a consulting firm working on Miami's port access problems, noted that when there was a public hearing on the I-95 slip ramp, there was no significant support for the project, while opponents dominated the session.
He and other officials at the workshop told the audience that they need to lobby to get the project revived, then support it through the process.
Miami City Manager Pedro Hernandez said the city wants to do whatever it can to ease congestion on the roads leading in and out of the port.
'We're looking at all possible options that would remove trucks from downtown,' he commented.
Meanwhile, experts on a number of other options offered updates on ideas old and new for addressing port access problems.
The port tunnel remains on track and a project manager will likely be selected by the end of the year, acting port director Bill Johnson said. He added the port is preparing a $350 million capital improvement plan, stressing basic capital improvements that will make the port more efficient and attractive to its customers.
Officials from the Florida East Cost Railroad reviewed a proposal to develop on-port rails services'and idea explained in detail at an access workshop on May 3.
A consultant who helped to put together the PierPass off-peak incentive program for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach explained how that program was put together.
Consultant Joseph Palazzolo said it took strong leadership from the marine terminal operators to make that now-successful program a reality, in spite of strong initial opposition.
'There's something in the program for everyone not to like,' he said, quoting one terminal operating company executive. Yet by realizing that there were cons to the program no matter what the final version would look like, private sector officials were able to put together PierPass, offsetting a strong political effort to start imposing state-mandated fees on containers.
A Miami version of PierPass was widely panned at the workshop as being unrealistic in this market.
Seaboard Marine's Bruce Brecheisen noted, for example, that there is considerable evening traffic in downtown Miami, presenting a conflict with a move to increase truck traffic into the port after 5 p.m.
'(National Basketball Association commissioner) David Stern is not going to have the Heat play all their games in the afternoon,' he observed.
There was also discussion about the possibility of developing a barge service that would take containers from the port to a yard on the Miami River to avoid sending trucks into downtown Miami.
Pimentel said the FCBF had been talking to Miami River officials about the idea, and the port's Bill Johnson said he was open to that and all options.
Johnson also noted that even though the overall market prospects for the Port of Miami are extremely bright because of international trade trends, cargo volumes are not growing rapidly.
'We're at a critical crossroads right now,' Johnson commented. 'Cruise traffic was up 3 percent, but on the cargo side we're relatively flat or down. I'm out trying to grow that cargo business.'