The Blue Cut Fire that burned for a week in the Cajon Pass didn’t just affect the more than 80,000 people who had to evacuate or those who lost nearly 100 homes there. It also curtailed the movement of cargo along a key freight corridor to and from the L.A. basin, closing four train lines and the 15 freeway, a major truck route.
Though short-lived, the shutdown highlighted the vulnerability of goods movement in one of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas and the largest port complex in the country.
The closure of some of the Cajon Pass infrastructure lasted only about a day after the start of the fire on Aug. 16, with the final rail line reopening Aug. 20. Though the delays were brief, they might happen with greater frequency. Many climatologists predict Southern California will become hotter and drier, adding to the frequency and intensity of wildfires, and earthquakes are an ever-present threat, sparking concern that natural disasters could cut the freight lifeline for far longer.
“It’s a fear that’s been in the back of our mind,” said Stephen Cheung, president of World Trade Center Los Angeles. “The only thing I’m hoping for is that the rest of the nation will see this as a wake-up call.”
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handle 40 percent of U.S. imports and many of those goods are carried through the Cajon Pass.
Up to 90 BNSF Railway trains, each carrying the equivalent cargo of 280 to 400 trucks, move through the pass daily, said Lena Kent, director of public affairs for BNSF.
“People across the country depend on the cargo that’s being shipped on trains through that corridor,” Kent said.
The other major railway operating at the ports, Union Pacific, has a single Cajon Pass line, which was closed longer than the others because the wildfire damaged one of its bridges, said spokesman Justin Jacobs.
Unlike BNSF, however, Union Pacific has two other routes, one heading north along the coast and the other southeast toward Yuma, Ariz., he said. Still, the Cajon Pass is Union Pacific’s most-traveled L.A. route, with 40 to 70 trains daily.
Truck stop
Those rail lines frequently parallel the 15 freeway, on which up to 5,500 trucks travel daily, according to Eric Sauer, a vice president at the California Trucking Association.
Sauer estimated his industry’s loss at about $1 million for the single day that the freeway was closed.
“They had to hold freight in the area for two days and then others were able to get around with detours, but it cost the company an additional 246 miles,” he said.
Despite temporarily losing the route, port, railroad, and trucking officials said they were able to quickly adjust to the situation.
BNSF and Union Pacific shared their available rail lines to move some trains, while many truckers found alternate routes.
“I think we were quite nimble as an industry in how we managed this,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka.
The response was helped in particular by a series of meetings over the past 18 months organized by the Federal Maritime Commission among the ports and companies in the supply chain, including trucking firms, railroads, freight forwarders, customs house brokers, cargo owners, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said Seroka.
These meetings developed relationships so that in times of crisis we were able to react more swiftly, he said.
In addition to working together, communicating and finding alternate ways to move goods, port officials are finding other solutions to potential interruptions.
The Port of Long Beach is planning to build “energy islands” to generate and store power, including in hydrogen fuel tanks for its new hydrogen-powered trucks, said spokesman Michael Gold.
That way, in the event of a catastrophe, the port’s creating enough power through wind and solar to power itself, Gold said.
Labor challenges
Though short-lived, the August wildfire was just the latest challenge affecting the flow of goods from the ports.
Last year’s dockworker slowdown during nine months of contract negotiations was far worse, said John Martin, president of Martin Associates, an economic and transportation consulting firm based in Lancaster, Pa.
He said he doubted the Blue Cut Fire, or the fear of more fires and the ever-present risk of earthquakes, alone would deter shippers from using local ports.
“Quite frankly, I don’t think that enters into the thought process nearly as much as the uncertainty of labor issues,” he said. “There’s been a notable shift of cargo to the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, and there’s probably a sustained change now.”
Still, he said, with other shipping routes to the East Coast from Asia, such as through the Panama and Suez Canals, becoming more accessible and efficient, anything that slows cargo in Southern California, including more frequent natural disasters, could ultimately have an impact.
“To the extent that these natural occurrences happen more and more frequently, there will have to be some contingencies for looking at other ports,” he said.
Martin said it’s an issue that his company, which since 1986 has conducted more than 900 economic and planning studies for nearly every port in the United States and international ports, will have to take a look at.
Before, “I wouldn’t even consider the potential for a natural disaster when doing logistical cost analysis,” Martin said, “but I will now.”
