September 25, 2006

CONSTRUCTION

PAM MEERS

Constrution on Phase 1 of the Fairview Container Terminal is proceeding on schedule and on budget.

Prince Rupert port expansion on schedule

Jim Stirling

Correspondent

Northern British Columbia’s largest transportation infrastructure pro-ject is also it’s oldest.

Realizing the potential of the port of Prince Rupert has been a dream for nearly a century. Now it appears Prince Rupert’s ship has finally come in with the first phase construction on the $170 million container port underway in the north coast city. By the fall of 2007, the Fairview Container terminal’s three custom designed, 370-foot cranes should be unloading and loading some of the world’s largest container vessels plying the shortest and most direct route to Asia.

Phase 1 of the new Fairview Terminal will be able to accommodate one container ship, up to 12,500 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) as well as break-bulk vessels and barges at a secondary 250-metre berth.

Most other Pacific coast ports are experiencing chronic congestion and are operating at or near capacity. Prince Rupert, on the other hand, has barely tapped into its growth opportunities. Development of the first phase will allow Prince Rupert to handle 500,000 TEUs per year.

Partners in the first phase funding are Maher Terminals, the container port operator at $60 million; $25 million from CN whose rail lines will service the port, $25 million by the Port of Prince Rupert and $30 million each from the provincial and federal governments. The completion of the second phase by 2010 will expand capacity to two million containers and boost the total project cost to $500 million. Looking further ahead, the Prince Rupert Port Authority is predicting construction of a second terminal by 2015 to double the port’s capacity to four million containers annually.

“The Port of Prince Rupert is a misnomer, we should be called the Port of Northern B.C.,” pointed out Don Krusel, president and CEO for the Prince Rupert Port Authority in a speech delivered to the Prince George Construction Association. He said the container port will have a greater economic impact on northern B.C. than the 2010 Winter Olympics will have on greater Vancouver.

“We expect it will have a direct $200 million annual economic impact and much of that will be along the trade corridor” he added.

There are already indications of Krusel’s predictions coming true. CN is spending an additional $365 million to upgrade the rail line, develop transload facilities and purchase 50 high horsepower locomotives as well as railcars to handle the anticipated freight volumes through Prince Rupert. CN is expected to announce construction of intermodal facilities in Prince George and Edmonton, where containers can be transferred between trucks and trains. A Prince George cargo handling centre would allow any products that can be containerized to take advantage of empty containers going through Prince Rupert to Asian ports. Business leaders anticipate having a road/rail/port infrastructure in place will be the stimulus manufacturers of various products have been waiting for.

Meanwhile, the port of Kitimat is getting in on the action. Now Prince Rupert is converting to a container port, Kitimat figures on picking up the slack for products not shipped in containers. These include wood pellets, which are becoming increasingly in demand as a renewable, green energy source. There are major plans in the B.C. interior to use lodgepole pine trees killed by the mountain pine beetle epidemic as feedstock for pellet manufacture. Steel pipelines are another potential product for a Kitimat port. Enbridge Gateway Pipelines has a $4 billion plan to build a 1,200 kilometre pipeline from the northern Alberta tar sands projects across B.C. to a proposed terminal in Kitimat. Other large oil and gas transportation companies are also eyeing Prince Rupert and/or Kitimat as possible shipping points for their products between Alberta and Asia. For example, the federal government recently announced its support for a $500 million liquefied natural gas terminal proposed by Kitimat LNG of Calgary.

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