I'd like to think that if we declared a state of emergency, suspended all regulations and deployed a couple battalions of Seabees we could still build a port in a matter of months, rather than years.
I'd like to think we still have those kinds of capabilities if they were needed, but I'm increasingly not sure that we actually do.
Depends on what you consider a "port" to be. Sure, a shoddy good-enough-for-wartime place where ships can dock can be built in a few months. Building a decent container port with proper container cranes, train yards and the software to integrate it all in a couple of months? That capability has never existed.
The cement alone would take years to pour. The giant cranes have to have rail to unload onto, and it has to go somewhere. The computers to control it could take years to program. The harbor dredging and shore upgrades could take years. And its not all in parallel.
Maybe an off-shore port? With a floating causeway of rail? To do something quickly requires some out-of-the-box thinking.
I'm not saying we should do that, but it might be preferable to allowing the citizens of LA to hold the entire global economy hostage because they love their regulations.
I'd like to think we still have those kinds of capabilities if they were needed, but I'm increasingly not sure that we actually do.