Long Beach : Pier G Overhaul Approved

In the latest of a series of major port expansion projects, the Long Beach Harbor Commission has approved a $40-million redevelopment of Pier G, where container terminals will be enlarged and construction of a 1,200-foot wharf will allow docking of a third 950-foot supertanker.

The Pier G project is part of a plan that for 1986 includes the completion of a $45-million expansion of Pier A and initial work on a $123-million landfill project off Pier J.

Also, Wrather Corp., operator of the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose attractions on Pier J, expects to break ground this fall on a $40-million, 350-room hotel expansion--the first phase of a planned $250-million development over the next 15 years.

The work on the port’s three main piers is interrelated. With completion of a 24-acre landfill and the replacement of old sheds with a new terminal on Pier A in June, Long Beach Container Terminal will move there from Pier J. That move will allow Maersk Lines Agency to shift operations from Pier G to Pier J and enable two other Pier G tenants, Sea-land Service and United States Lines, to expand their operations.

In the end the four companies, all of which handle containerized cargo, will have substantially more acreage, port planner Barry McDaniel said.

Construction of the 1,200-foot by 100-foot wharf at the southern end of Pier G probably will begin by July 1 and be completed by the end of the year, McDaniel said.

The Pier J expansion, with landfills of 135 and 12 acres, is expected to begin this summer and be completed in 1989. It would be the first Long Beach phase of the $4-billion 2020 Plan, which calls for the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to create 2,600 landfill acres during the next 34 years, when cargo is expected to triple.