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The Port of Portland is charged with the responsibility to ensure Portland's status as a major international shipping and trade center. To meet that need in the 21st century, the Port is planning the development of a marine cargo complex on the western portion of Hayden Island.

From the beginning, Oregon's economy has been linked to food and fiber exports and Columbia River shipping. This global connection continues today.

Oregon's strong economy can only be sustained if marine cargo facilities keep pace with demand. Portland's trade is projected to more than triple by 2040 and Hayden Island will provide the competitive access Oregon needs to handle its trade in the 21st century.

While it may seem most growth is occurring in the service and information sectors of the economy, Portland's docks serve a vast resource and manufacturing economy which feeds, houses and equips growing markets in Asia and elsewhere.

Over half of the world's population is in Asia, and 55% of world population growth and 45% of world income growth are projected to occur in Asia over the next decade. According to the World Bank, all of the world's largest economies other than the U.S. will be located in Asia by 2020.

In 1997, exporters shipped $4.2 billion in goods and materials to foreign destinations via Portland (12.2 million tons), 86% of which was to these rising Asian markets. It is no accident that Portland is the second largest export port on the West Coast after L.A.-Long Beach and America's largest wheat port. Portland has the products the world wants to buy.

As trade continues to expand, so does the market demand for marine cargo facilities. On average, 210 acres of new marine facilities have been needed each decade to move Portland's trade, after considering redevelopment and port cooperation strategies.

Marine terminals are getting bigger and each new terminal will require 100 to 200 acres of waterfront, rail-served property to accommodate the bigger ships and 8,000-foot-long unit trains planned for the future.

With the trade growth over the past few decades, Portland has now exhausted all of its large marine development sites. The Port will redevelop older terminals and cooperate with neighboring ports where possible, but new sites will be needed sometime between 2000 and 2010. Actual timing will depend on market considerations, but the future need is a certainty.

West Hayden Island is the only Oregon area site which meets modern port planning criteria. Planned for containers, bulk grain and other cargoes, Hayden Island allows the room for the state-of-the-art port operations needed for the future. West Hayden Island will provide 550 acres, about a 30-year marine terminal site supply, for the 21st century.

Hayden Island is also the closest port location to exporters and importers in Portland, the Willamette Valley, Eastern Oregon and Southern Washington. It will be their shortest route to shipside in the Northwest, which is critical for their global competitiveness.

Downriver and coastal locations require that shippers substitute more expensive truck and rail transportation for less expensive water transportation and consequently are less cost effective. By truck or rail, the shorter distance to Hayden Island means less time and money for shippers, less fuel consumption and emissions in the environment, and less demand on road and rail capacity by trade.

Oregon lacks good port sites and other locations have poor highway and rail access.

The most likely alternatives are on the Washington side of the Columbia. While these sites will meet some of the future need, particularly for bulk or grain facilities, they have significant drawbacks.

In short, West Hayden Island is the only large site located close to the export/import centers in Portland and the Willamette Valley which meets the market requirement for deep water, main line and interstate access.

Sixty to eighty percent of Portland's projected trade growth is expected to move by rail. West Hayden Island will provide the critical rail connections to support market demand.

No other site in the Pacific Northwest provides the rail efficiencies inherent to Hayden Island's unique location. Both Burlington Northern and Union Pacific rail lines first meet deep water shipping at Hayden Island and this Columbia River rail route provides the shortest, most cost and fuel-efficient rail operation in the Northwest.

The Northwest region will also benefit by consolidating rail freight here instead of down river or in Seattle. Hayden Island will relieve the already congested I-5 rail corridor. It will also help preserve that corridor for Puget Sound traffic and future high-speed passenger rail service planned between Eugene and Vancouver, B.C.

West Hayden Island is the last large parcel of land in the metropolitan area which is suitable for marine activity. Recognizing this, the property was brought into the Urban Growth Boundary in 1983, eleven years before it was acquired by the Port, based on its proposed future use for marine industrial activity.

This central location within the Urban Growth Boundary is an important advantage for marine facility operators and the public alike. It will allow good proximity to labor and jobs; convenient access to marine services like ship agents and pilots; use of urban public services like Tri-Met; and cost-effective connections to infrastructure and utilities.

Aspects of West Hayden Island are environmentally sensitive and development of the property will be carefully planned to minimize environmental impacts.

The entire design will undergo the scrutiny of a formal environmental impact assessment.

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