Jerry Moro, director of Northern California Operations for the Harbor Trucking Association, says plans for the Oakland Athletics’ baseball park to be constructed at the current site of the Port of Oakland’s Howard Terminal will generate so much car traffic that harbor trucking will be brought to a near standstill during baseball games and other events.
The result will be to place container terminal operations at risk.
In an interview with AJOT, Moro, who is also director of Northern California Operations for Quik Pick Express, said the Oakland A’s have not fully analyzed the traffic congestion impact generated by their proposed ballpark plan. He says the team does not understand harbor trucking and the logistics demands placed on modern containerized port operations.
The A’s ball park plan has created an unprecedented and unified opposition among Port of Oakland stakeholders that include harbor truckers led by Moro, vessel operators and terminals led by John McLaurin, president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA) and longshore workers led by Melvin Makay, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10. In another unusual development, McLaurin actually attended the May Day rally hosted by Makay and the ILWU protesting the ball park outside of Howard Terminal. McKay said he was “proud” he and McLaurin were “working together for the common good of the waterfront.”
Last week, the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners approved a term sheet for the proposed baseball stadium project. It gives the A’s four years to complete an environmental impact report and gain public agency approvals. The Board said it would take a final vote on a proposed stadium only after the A’s completed preliminary steps.