The Port of Tacoma
commission Thursday will consider authorizing demolition of Pier 4 in a project
that ultimately will equip the port to handle the new generation of
monster-sized container ships.
The razing of Pier 4 on
the west side of the Blair Waterway north of East 11th Street is the next step
in creating a nearly-3000-foot-long pier that could berth two ultra-large
containerships at once.
The port has already
strengthened the adjacent Pier 3 and equipped it with wider gauge rails on
which new larger container cranes can operate to load and unload the gigantic
new ships.
The first group of those
new super ships is now carrying cargo between Asia and Europe. In Europe,
several ports spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build new terminals and
piers to handle the ships.
The largest of those
ships, the Maersk Triple E class of containerships, are the largest ships in
the world. At more than 1,300 feet long, those ships are nearly 200 feet longer
than U.S. aircraft carriers. The Triple-E ships are 194 feet wide and can
transport some 18,000 20-foot-long shipping containers.
Maersk Line has
contracted with a Korean shipyard for 20 of those ships and is reportedly
shopping for 10 more ships that are even larger, 20,000 containers.
Ships of that size are
too large to be easily handled at the port’s existing terminals farther up the
Blair Waterway, thus the need to update Piers 3 and 4. The Triple E ships or
their peers may not be calling soon in Puget Sound, but they will displace somewhat
smaller ships from the Asia-Europe trade. Those ships could be redeployed to
call at West Coast U.S. ports.
The port has already
done preliminary planning and testing for the Pier 4 demolition. Environmental
testing discovered elevated levels of tributyltin in the mud beneath the
existing pier. Tributyltin is a chemical commonly added to ship bottom paint to
discourage the growth of barnacles and plant life on the ships’ hulls.
The use of the chemical
has been banned for several years, but it was used for decades in ship
construction and repair. The port has extensively tested the area beneath the
pier to define the areas where the chemical, called TBT for short, is
concentrated. The dredge spoils from those areas will be disposed in a local
landfill. The clean soil dredged in the project will be disposed of in the deep
waters of Commencement Bay.
The dredging is
necessary to handle the new ships, which draw 48 feet of water.
Port spokeswoman Tara
Mattina said the port doesn’t know where the TBT originated, but the area was
once used for ship maintainence and repair before the toxic effects of TBT were
known. TBT in the bottom soils can kill marine organisms and migrate higher in
the food chain.
The port will move
activity now handled at Pier 4 to Pier 3 during the construction and demolition
process. The demolition, whose total budget including planning and testing
totals $19.3 million, is expected to be completed by this time next year.
Rebuilding the pier and
equipping it for the larger ships is budgeted at $121 million. No timetable has
been set for that project.
The ports of Tacoma and
Seattle announced last fall they are forming an alliance to market and operate
their shipping terminals jointly. Under that proposed alliance, the two ports
would decide where best to build new facilities. The Port of Tacoma appears to
be a step ahead of Seattle in moving to handle the ultra-large vessels with the
rebuilding of piers 3 and 4.
The Port of Seattle
recently mothballed one of its major terminals, Terminal 5, with the intention
of rebuilding it to handle those new generation of ships. The Seattle port
recently, however, signed a lease with Shell Oil Co. for temporary use of that
terminal for staging for oil exploration and production activities offshore in
Alaska.
Source: the news tribune.
3 February 2015
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