Port Expansion continues

1. Connors Diving with a core drilling scow off Fairview Cove, June1.

A tender ad published on June 12 announced another major construction project for the Port of Halifax. With completion of the extension to the Halterm container terminal in the south end of the port, it is now time for an extension to the Fairview Cove container terminal in Bedford Basin. The tender is for  dredging and concrete crib- the same kind of construction used in the ongoing Pier 9 C extension.

2. When Fairview Cove opened there were no fixed cranes, only one mobile- and lots of empty space.

The Fairview Cove terminal, the port of Halifax's second container pier, was first opened for business in 1981 and has been extended twice since. With the introduction of larger cranes in 2007 the pier is capable of handling the current crop of post-Panamax ships. However as the size and number of larger ships is expected to increase, the need to accommodate two post-Panamax ships at the same time has become necessary. The extension to the Fairview Cove terminal will allow this. It also likely that more large cranes will be needed too. The recent arrival of larger ships, which could just barely berth under the current smaller cranes points to that need, but no announcement has been made yet.

3. Parts for the first crane were brought in by J.A.Z. Desgagnés in December 1981.

For the past many months fill has been accumulating at Fairview, most of it from the excavation for the new World Trade Centre. Last week Connors Diving had a core drill working at Fairview a sure indication that something was going to happen.

4. Big cranes for big ships at the west end of the pier, but smaller cranes for smaller ships at the east end. (April 6 , 2013 photo)

5. Fill operations continue today.

Halterm and Fairview - changes coming

Work on the Halterm pier extension reached a milestone this week when McNally Construction drove the last pile. Much work is yet to be done to meet the April 2012 completion date, but progress is certainly visible. The new concrete deck structure now extends about one third of the way out to the end.
1. McNally's Canadian Argosy works on the end of the pier extension 2011-09-28.

2.McNally fleet tied up for the weekend 2011-09-25. One of the original Halterm cranes is on the left.

As we last heard in June, Halterm was seeking prices to add two new super post panamax cranes. Not a peep has been heard since, so perhaps they have had second thoughts after losing two lines and one half of another line's calls. To add new cranes they will almost certainly decommission the two oldest cranes that date from the 1970 opening of the pier (such as the one shown). Halterm is operated by Macquarie.

Meanwhile at Fairview Cove work has started on dismantling one of the oldest cranes on that pier. There are currently six cranes at Fairview Cove, 3 of 40 tonne and three of 60 tonne (or 65 tonne depending on who you believe.) No announcement has been made on replacements for these old cranes, but I find it hard to believe that this busy pier could get by with fewer cranes for very long. Fairview Cove is operated by Cerescorp.

3. One of the small 40 tonne cranes has been removed from the pier face and is being dismantled. The two remaining small cranes work the Ludwigshafen Express this afternoon.

4. All three super post panamax cranes work on the OOCL New York this afternoon.

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OOCL Britain, port side to.

The OOCL post-Panamax ships that call at Fairview Cove almost invariably tie up "starboard side to". To do this, the ship must turn off the berth and back in. This also allows them to leave bow first, and requires slightly less maneuvering and a straighter departure.

The two post-Panamax cranes at the Ceres Terminal are also stationed at the west end of the pier, so the ship ties up at that end.

It was a bit of a surprise today to see OOCL Britain alongside "port side to". I could detect a diver's boat under her stern, but this was not possible to capture on film. No doubt there was a very good reason to tie the ship up in this way.

Also the ship seemed to be extremely lightly loaded.

Built in 1996, the 66046 gross ton ship can carry 5344 TEU. It is registered in Hong Kong.

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