Director's Message: Identifying Practical Solutions for Shipping
Our work to support and enhance Oregon’s freight shipping capability has evolved since we started in December 2015. We continue to press for legislation which will establish an Oregon Shipping Authority, a public corporation which will support freight shipping throughout the state and which will restore container shipping at the Port of Portland. This is what got us started.
But we are now working a parallel track: identifying practical projects which enhance shipping capability whether or not legislation is passed. We are now working with businesses in the Lebanon area to assist with their development of a transload facility. We are developing the necessary information and network of support to establish additional freight shipping capability at the mouth of the Columbia River. We are encouraging and supporting the enhancement of Coos Bay as an international port.
All of our work has confirmed that we are filling a political vacuum, at the statewide level, in regard to pursuing a vision of Oregon as an international/West Coast trade center in regard to shipping freight. Anyone who looks at the map of the United States including its water, road, and rail capabilities, should recognize that Oregon has great shipping potential for importing and exporting goods as well as moving goods within her borders. We have geographic gifts: the Columbia River; the seaport capabilities in the Warrenton/Astoria area and the Coos Bay area; the existing seaport/riverport capabilities of the Port of Portland; and multiple local ports which are serving their communities. We have 24 shortline railroads which can provide even better service when their lines are improved and they are provided with better connections. On the other hand, our highways are often crowded and show wear and tear, while we have impaired the capability of our dynamic trucking industry through unnecessary extra levels of regulation.
There is much to be done and we are happy to be heavily engaged in helping make things happen to enhance Oregon’s freight shipping capability.
Sincerely,
Kevin Mannix
Project Director