...Delores Conway, director of the Casden Forecasts at the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate, told CPN that although China has invested heavily in its ports in recent years, the road networks leading to and from those ports are subpar by comparison. In a globalized economy, she emphasized, it's crucial to get cargo containers to and from ports quickly and smoothly.
Conway also noted that the devaluation of the U.S. dollar and the expansion of China's middle class will continue to drive growth in exports to China, which in turn will boost demand for inland distribution centers there.
Conway compared the Chinese port situation with Southern California's Alameda Corridor, a 20-mile rail freight "expressway" that connects the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach with the national rail network. The line went into operation in April 2002 and handles an average of 43 trains a day, substantially relieving congestion on the Long Beach Freeway and elsewhere in the region. The corridor, she noted, has hugely boosted industrial, and later office, development in California's Inland Empire, around Riverside and San Bernardino...