From the Maritime Professional blog:
Unexpected problems bedevil the Stockton barge project
Proposed as a commendable alternative to the 1600 trucks each day on the freeway between the bay and Sacramento, [the marine highway] was designed to shuttle two barges between Stockton, Oakland and Sacramento, with loading done by two 140-ton mobile cranes.Proposed marine highway, Port of Stockton image.
Critics of the scheme predicted that it would come to grief, citing high labor and fuel costs compared with the small volumes that would be carried. Now they’re even surer.
Speculation about the reasons for Savage turning its back centers on three factors – Oakland’s management and labor turmoil, predictable grumbling from the labor unions involving wrangling over contracts, manning levels and pay rates (which may or may not involve the ILWU) and the city of Stockton’s precarious financial state.