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The Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority's (ACTA) governing board recently approved a seven-point plan designed to expedite freight through the Los Angeles area, reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality.

The plan will enable the authority to partner with the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, distribution centers and railroads to reduce daytime truck traffic on regional freeways and major arterial streets, and increase the corridor's rail traffic, ACTA officials believe.

Under the plan, ACTA will:
• assist in evaluating and implementing extended operating hours for both ports' cargo-distribution systems and regional distribution centers;
• work with the ports to optimize existing on-dock rail facilities;
• develop a pilot shuttle-train program;
• help the Los Angeles port and Burlington Northern Santa Fe create a near-dock intermodal container transfer facility designed for rail;
• promote the development of the Caltrans Heim Bridge Replacement Project to improve port access and increase Alameda Corridor use;
• participate in Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's and other agencies' goods-movement studies; and
• identify funding options.

"The implementation plan not only will help move cargo out of the ports and into warehouses and stores more quickly, but will have the added benefit of easing traffic jams and reducing the number of idling trucks on streets and freeways in our communities and throughout the region," said ACTA Vice Chair Janice Hahn in a prepared statement.

Open since April 2002, the Alameda Corridor is a high-speed freight rail expressway connecting the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports with transcontinental rail yards near downtown L.A.