<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper"><p>Port stakeholders, particularly truckers, fear the Nov. 1 closure of the Vincent Thomas Bridge for a major redecking project could exacerbate dwell times that are already hovering near 18-month highs. </p></div>

Port stakeholders, particularly truckers, fear the Nov. 1 closure of the Vincent Thomas Bridge for a major redecking project could exacerbate dwell times that are already hovering near 18-month highs.

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<div class="phx-topic"><p>Terminal operators and truckers at the Port of Los Angeles are preparing for a new level of supply chain challenges when the Vincent Thomas Bridge is completely closed Nov. 1 for a major redecking project expected to last 16 months. </p><p>Those pending challenges come as dwell times for containers moved from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by rail hit a 17-month high in August and truck dwells hovered near 18-month highs amid continued strong import volumes into the Southern California gateway.  </p><p>While port stakeholders have largely weathered minor disruptions over the past seven months ahead of the project, such as one-way closures on the bridge at night while the local streets that will serve as a detour route were resurfaced, the complete shutdown of the span is uncharted territory. </p><p>“Yes, street traffic was reduced at times to one lane, but the collaboration, communication among the stakeholders ... minimized the impact,” said Robert Loya, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association (HTA). “But now that we’re getting close to the shutdown, are we still concerned? Absolutely.”  </p><p>With fissures in the cement deck, redecking of the 62-year-old Vincent Thomas Bridge, a major artery connecting the Port of Los Angeles to area freeways, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/la-port-stakeholders-warming-to-plan-to-mitigate-impact-of-bridge-project-6013847">is necessary for safety reasons, according to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)</a>. </p><p>The agency said it will complete local street resurfacing over the next month ahead of the Nov. 1 bridge closure. </p><p>“Caltrans is working with partner agencies to mitigate traffic disruptions during the full closure,” an agency spokesperson told the <i>Journal of Commerce</i> Thursday. </p><div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="a56f2c77-120c-4d9f-8acf-b64da78abf2a"></dynamic-object></div><p>The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA), which represents terminal operators and shipping lines on the West Coast, said Caltrans since March has carried out 100 one-way bridge closures at night while resurfacing local streets. </p><p>A Caltrans study estimated that 8.8% or 4,664 of the 53,000 vehicles that transit the bridge each day are heavy-duty trucks. Most but not all of those trucks are pulling shipping containers, Michele Grubbs, PMSA’s vice president, told the <i>Journal of Commerce</i>.    </p><p>She said Caltrans in recent months met each Wednesday with a working group of terminal operators and truckers and issued a full report the next day on which streets would undergo resurfacing. Those meetings helped to make the one-directional bridge closures unobtrusive. </p><p>“There were no significant issues or delays,” Grubbs said. </p><h3>Longer dwells, turn times a concern for truckers </h3><p>But now that the full bridge closure is little more than a month away, port stakeholders are concerned that elevated container dwell times at the 12 marine terminals in the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex will only increase. </p><p>PMSA data shows truck dwell times at LA-LB were 2.95 days in August, down slightly from 3.03 days in July but matching the second-highest level since January 2025. Rail dwells of 6.75 days in August were up from 6.34 days in July and the highest since March 2025. </p><p>Truck turn times in August averaged 60 minutes across all terminals, according to the HTA. Although that is within the range that Loya said is manageable, he is more concerned that the percentage of turn times over two hours has climbed steadily from 7% in April to 10% in August. </p><p>“It’s the transactions over two hours that are killing us,” he said.</p><div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="e6e57511-33f9-4556-9b71-b1e3b49e2cde"></dynamic-object></div><p>Loya said truckers are equally concerned that empty containers are building up rapidly throughout the harbor area, at trucker yards and on the streets, because some terminals are restricting their acceptance of empties in order to keep them from congesting their facilities. The empty boxes are often sitting on chassis, which then restricts chassis availability for harbor drayage operators. </p><p>“It’s getting worse and worse and worse,” Loya said. </p><p>The elevated container dwell times at the terminals and empty box dwells on the streets come as import volumes from Asia have remained strong on the busy trans-Pacific trade. According to the National Retail Federation’s <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-retailers-expect-september-to-be-busiest-month-of-year-for-imports-6285607">Sept. 9 Global Port Tracker</a>, September will likely be the busiest month of the year for US imports, while imports in October are expected to be 1.7% higher year over year.  </p><p>Data kept by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on their respective websites shows that in the week of Sept. 27 to Oct. 3, more than 240,000 laden inbound TEUs combined are forecast to arrive at the complex, with about 200,000 laden TEUs scheduled to arrive Oct. 4-10. Any total above 200,000 laden TEUs is considered a strong import week. </p><p>Los Angeles is seeing the results of the healthy trans-Pacific trade. For the eight months through August, the port has handled 3.4 million TEUs in imports from Asia, up 4% over the same period last year, according to PIERS, a sister product of the <i>Journal of Commerce</i> within S&amp;P Global.  </p><p>PMSA cautions that traffic conditions around the port complex are likely to be on edge for the next 16 months during the bridge closure. The group said Caltrans’ pledge to maintain real-time updates of the traffic along the detour routes and at the marine terminals through 24-hour surveillance by dozens of cameras will be crucial to preventing a traffic accident or surge in import volumes from bringing traffic to a halt. </p><p>“We know this is Southern California, and traffic is what we live with,” Grubbs said. “We know there are going to be [problems]. The main issue is that we have good coordination to respond to the instances when they happen.” </p><p><i>Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at </i><a href="mailto:bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com"><i>bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com</i></a><i>.</i></p></div>

Terminal operators and truckers at the Port of Los Angeles are preparing for a new level of supply chain challenges when the Vincent Thomas Bridge is completely closed Nov. 1 for a major redecking project expected to last 16 months. Those pending challenges come as dwell times for containers moved from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by rail hit a 17-month high in August and truck dwells hovered near 18-month highs amid continued strong import volumes into the Southern California gateway. While port stakeholders have largely weathered minor disruptions over the past seven months ahead of the project, such as one-way closures on the bridge at night while the local streets that will serve as a detour route were resurfaced, the complete shutdown of the span is uncharted territory. “Yes, street traffic was reduced at times to one lane, but the collaboration, communication among the stakeholders ... minimized the impact,” said Robert Loya, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association (HTA). “But now that we’re getting close to the shutdown, are we still concerned? Absolutely.” With fissures in the cement deck, redecking of the 62-year-old Vincent Thomas Bridge, a major artery connecting the Port of Los Angeles to area freeways, is necessary for safety reasons, according to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) . The agency said it will complete local street resurfacing over the next month ahead of the Nov. 1 bridge closure. “Caltrans is working with partner agencies to mitigate traffic disruptions during the full closure,” an agency spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce Thursday. The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA), which represents terminal operators and shipping lines on the West Coast, said Caltrans since March has carried out 100 one-way bridge closures at night while resurfacing local streets. A Caltrans study estimated that 8.8% or 4,664 of the 53,000 vehicles that transit the bridge each day are heavy-duty trucks. Most but not all of those trucks are pulling shipping containers, Michele Grubbs, PMSA’s vice president, told the Journal of Commerce. She said Caltrans in recent months met each Wednesday with a working group of terminal operators and truckers and issued a full report the next day on which streets would undergo resurfacing. Those meetings helped to make the one-directional bridge closures unobtrusive. “There were no significant issues or delays,” Grubbs said. Longer dwells, turn times a concern for truckers But now that the full bridge closure is little more than a month away, port stakeholders are concerned that elevated container dwell times at the 12 marine terminals in the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex will only increase. PMSA data shows truck dwell times at LA-LB were 2.95 days in August, down slightly from 3.03 days in July but matching the second-highest level since January 2025. Rail dwells of 6.75 days in August were up from 6.34 days in July and the highest since March 2025. Truck turn times in August averaged 60 minutes across all terminals, according to the HTA. Although that is within the range that Loya said is manageable, he is more concerned that the percentage of turn times over two hours has climbed steadily from 7% in April to 10% in August. “It’s the transactions over two hours that are killing us,” he said. Loya said truckers are equally concerned that empty containers are building up rapidly throughout the harbor area, at trucker yards and on the streets, because some terminals are restricting their acceptance of empties in order to keep them from congesting their facilities. The empty boxes are often sitting on chassis, which then restricts chassis availability for harbor drayage operators. “It’s getting worse and worse and worse,” Loya said. The elevated container dwell times at the terminals and empty box dwells on the streets come as import volumes from Asia have remained strong on the busy trans-Pacific trade. According to the National Retail Federation’s Sept. 9 Global Port Tracker , September will likely be the busiest month of the year for US imports, while imports in October are expected to be 1.7% higher year over year. Data kept by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on their respective websites shows that in the week of Sept. 27 to Oct. 3, more than 240,000 laden inbound TEUs combined are forecast to arrive at the complex, with about 200,000 laden TEUs scheduled to arrive Oct. 4-10. Any total above 200,000 laden TEUs is considered a strong import week. Los Angeles is seeing the results of the healthy trans-Pacific trade. For the eight months through August, the port has handled 3.4 million TEUs in imports from Asia, up 4% over the same period last year, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. PMSA cautions that traffic conditions around the port complex are likely to be on edge for the next 16 months during the bridge closure. The group said Caltrans’ pledge to maintain real-time updates of the traffic along the detour routes and at the marine terminals through 24-hour surveillance by dozens of cameras will be crucial to preventing a traffic accident or surge in import volumes from bringing traffic to a halt. “We know this is Southern California, and traffic is what we live with,” Grubbs said. “We know there are going to be [problems]. The main issue is that we have good coordination to respond to the instances when they happen.” Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at  bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com .

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