BajaNomad

Mexico officially plans a Baja megaport ...

The Sculpin - 8-9-2006 at 09:29 AM

Directive puts it 150 miles south
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 9, 2006

The Mexican government moved closer to creating a megaport in Baja California this week by publishing an official directive stating the government's intention to create the facility at the Bay of Colonet 150 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Printed in Monday's federal government registry, the Diario Oficial de la Federac?on, the directive was signed by President Vicente Fox and Communications and Transportation Secretary Pedro Cerisola.



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Although the project has been publicly discussed and global maritime companies and individuals have been preparing for a competitive auction for concessions to develop and operate the port, the one-page entry is the first official notification that Mexico is promoting the project.
The port is expected to relieve congestion at West Coast ports, especially Long Beach and Los Angeles, which are expected to reach their capacity by 2011. The project is expected to be paired with the construction of a rail line to the U.S.-Mexico border near Mexicali to carry containerized cargo shipments into the United States.

Although the directive gave the longitude and latitude of the project's locale, it did not include a footprint of the port with details on the number of berths and location of a breakwater.

There also was no mention of when the government will open the bidding process for the project and how it will be structured.

Last week, Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy Walther announced that the competition would begin within three weeks, but a disagreement over mineral rights in the ocean where the port is to be located appears to be stalling the project.

Gabriel Ch?vez, who is among a group of partners holding the mineral concession off the coast, said negotiations in which parties were trying to accommodate both endeavors had broken down the week before.

The entry in the government registry said the port will be under the authority of the Port of Ensenada's harbormaster.

woody with a view - 8-9-2006 at 04:16 PM

read it in the onion this morning and could only giggle over this line:
Quote:

it did not include a footprint of the port with details on the number of berths and location of a breakwater.


REMEMBER SANTA ROSALILLITA CABRONES!!!:light:

bajalou - 8-12-2006 at 08:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by freaking102
The west coast needs another port. The crime is that established Port cities like San Diego and San Fran are not striving to be bigger Ports, but are in fact diminishing their Port cargo operations as they fill their water fronts with touristic developments. At least LA is savvy enough to be trying to expand their Port cargo ops.
Mexicans are going to kick some burro if they pull off this Port development.


Both San Diego and San Francisco have major stumbling blocks for cargo handeling - moving the cargo out of the area. Rail lines are the efficient way to move it long distances and neither have direct lines heading east. San Diego has to go north to the LA area to connect with eastbound routes and San Francisco has to go south to San Jose then up north to Oakland before connecting to eastbound routes. The Mexican port plan must have the rail line to Mexicali for it to work at all.

:O

San Francisco does not have a port

thebajarunner - 8-12-2006 at 09:32 AM

San Francisco has a bunch of empty piers, a few cruise liner docks, and a schlocky tacky place called Fishermans' Wharf.
All the Bay Area port activity comes through Port of Oakland, which does have good rail to Martinez and Sacramento and on to Chicago.

We drove out to the Colonet bay last month and you can certainly see how it would be attractive for a port facility. It is a magnificent bay, with plenty of opportunity for protection and off loading facility.

Going to be real interesting to see how they can support it with sufficient rail (and truck) traffic to the North, as well as build a support city to house all the workers.

Reminds me of Cancun when I visited it the first time in 1981. The city itself had grown from 5000 to 50,000 in about two years, and the infrastructure was ghastly. Never went back, probably still behind the curve.

wilderone - 8-14-2006 at 08:54 AM

Not all coastal cities strive to become a cog in the wheel of foreign cargo transportation. Let her rip in Colonet. That area will be totally transformed into an ugly concrete pad with pallets and railroads and trucks and huge machinery, tacky housing for the workers, and all the uncontrolled development and inadequate infrastructure that will come with poor city planning. Possibly a bonus for China and Japan (where do you think the cargo comes from) and jobs for Mexicans, but a little less of Baja CA will cease to exist, and if the sand mining project is allowed, the coastal sea environment will be destroyed as well. Baja travelers seeking a true Baja experience will have to pass through the Mexican equivalent of Long Beach to get further south where, hopefully, Baja will remain somewhat intact. Make no mistake - the Colenet project MUST look like Long Beach or it will be a failure. I'm glad I will be dead when that eventually happens so I won't have to ever see it. If we didn't import so much utter crap from Asia, another port wouldn't be needed. Do we really need a billion christmas ornaments, or 2 billion ceramic kittens, or 500 million wooden plates, or 5 million baskets made in Japan, China, Indonesia? Buy American - save Baja.

baja829 - 8-14-2006 at 03:03 PM

About --Baja travelers going South having to pass through all of this--

That's why the road from San Felipe South to Chapala is being built-- Let's see which one gets done first. All that travel coming over to "our" side will change things here as well, but nothing like Colonet.