The South Coast Air Quality Management District has identified the development and deployment of zero emissions goods movement transportation systems as one of the agency's top priorities in order to attain federal air quality standards. The San Pedro Bay Ports (ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach) handle about 40 percent of all shipping containers imported to the United States. The containers are off-loaded from the cargo ships to heavy-duty short-haul diesel fueled drayage trucks and then transported along major transportation routes (such as the I-710 corridor) and side roads to nearby industrial warehouse districts and/or railroad yards for eventual distribution of goods throughout California and the United States.
These major transportation corridors and side streets are often surrounded by disadvantaged communities, and the criteria air pollutants emitted by the drayage trucks have a considerable impact on the living environment and health of humans, resulting in respiratory, cardiovascular, and cancer diseases. The freight movement through the ports is expected to increase 30 to 40 percent by 2028 which will only aggravate the negative effects of greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants. This project involved the retrofit of pantographs to 3 different truck platforms (battery-electric, plug-in hybrid diesel, and plug-in compressed natural gas truck drive-train configurations) and constructed a one-mile long overhead catenary system test track in Carson, California, to test the feasibility of drayage trucks operating as zero-emission vehicles along the major freight corridors/roadways and only engaging their engines when exiting to the various warehouse and railyard areas. Even though the contracts between South Coast Air Quality Management District and the California Energy Commission were directed specifically for pantograph design, build and retrofit (contract 600-12-011 for $1.6M) and construction of the catenary overhead system (contract 600-14-003 for $1.4M), this final report is a comprehensive overall report for the entire $13.5M South Coast Air Quality Management District administered project.
