San Pedro Bay Port Technology Program

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach began a shift to technology applications after the 2001 World Trade Center attacks led to a focus on port security. Later, after the 2003 labor disputes which shut down the West Coast ports, a need for expanded on-dock systems were identified. Bill Lyte, involved at the ports since 1982, began a linkage of the Pasadena Technoplex community and the ports in the mid-1990s with the NCRST program mentioned above. In 2001, with Tetra Tech, he brought a delegation from JPL to meet with the U.S. Coast Guard for port technology discussions.

Upon joining Kennedy/Jenks Consultants in 2004, he began a rapid escalation of port technology programs, initially in Long Beach. The Harbor Association of Industry and Commerce began to showcase port technologies in its newsletter. A 2006 conference organized by Mr. Lyte with the Long Beach World Trade Center (Greg Moore) and Long Beach City College (Shenui Sloan and Priscilla Lopez) featured the technology programs of Port, railroad (BNSF) and international terminal operators (Hutchison Whampoa). Cal State Long Beach ultimately established a technology center (Dr. Jim Till) in conjunction with Technology and Development Group.

In 2006, the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach established their Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP), a $2 billion program for green port operation. With the CAAP is a $15 million Technology Advancement Program (TAP) to help new port technologies with regulatory approvals. The TAP became the anchor for the current port technology program. Port of Los Angeles’s San Pedro and Wilmington communities have increasingly become the center of this new port technology. The San Pedro (Camilla Townsend and Herb Zimmer) and Wilmington (Dan Hoffman) Chambers, working with the Port, are helping to establish a port technology incubator modeled after the County of L.A. BTC. Ralph Hicks is the Port Economic Development Director, and Bill Walles (now of Technoplex Group) produced the incubator business plan. The incubator is expected to be open in early 2009.

In support of this program, the San Pedro Bay Port Technology Center (SPBPTC) team has worked with both ports to host several major conferences, including a highly successful May, 2008 event featuring the Port TAP program and economic development staff, port technology firms, and venture capitalists. Bill Lyte also produced a technical paper, “Building a Maritime Technology Cluster at the San Pedro Bay Ports” which provided a road map for this overall initiative.