by Canadian Sailings | Mar 5, 2019 | Keith Norbury, Other, Ports and Terminals
By Keith Norbury
B.C. Ferry Services Inc., which operates 47 ferry terminals on coastal B.C., plans to spend $1.1 billion upgrades to those facilities over the next 12 years. That’s 27 per cent of a $3.9 billion capital plan that B.C. Ferry Commission signed off on in late 2018. It’s also significantly more than the 21.4 per cent of the capital total of $2.915 billion allocated in the preceding 12-year capital plan from fiscal 2004 to 2018.
(more…)
by Canadian Sailings | Mar 5, 2019 | Gateways and Corridors, Keith Norbury, Other
By Keith Norbury
A new facility for handling imports of European vehicles is the latest addition to services at the Port of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. The B.C. Vehicle Processing Centre will receive its first shipment of 400 automobiles in early March, said Ian Marr, President and CEO of Nanaimo Port Authority. That is when the Tranquil Ace, an MOL pure car and truck carrier, or PCTC, will dock at the port’s Assembly Wharf near the city’s downtown. The ship is scheduled to arrive at Nanaimo on March 7. Renovations to the 60,000 square foot building that will house the vehicle processing centre were 90 per cent completed by January. “But there’s always the odd little thing you can do around it to make it just a little nicer,” Mr. Marr said.
(more…)
by Canadian Sailings | Mar 5, 2019 | Keith Norbury, Other, Ports and Terminals
By Keith Norbury
The dream of a $2 billion transshipment hub near Port Alberni on the west coast of Vancouver Island remain alive despite being unsuccessful in a recent call for expressions of interest from the federal government’s National Trade Corridor Fund.
Zoran Knezevic, CEO of Port Alberni Port Authority, said in January that the port plans to try again during the government’s next call for proposals which began Jan. 15. “This time we will probably be looking for detailed funding for a detailed feasibility study,” Mr. Knezevic said. (more…)
by Canadian Sailings | Dec 12, 2018 | Business and Economy, Keith Norbury, Other, Ports and Terminals, Supply Chain and Logistics
By Keith Norbury
The $10.7 billion Site C hydroelectric dam project in northeastern B.C. entered its third year of construction this summer with more than 3,000 workers on the job. They include more than 700 heavy equipment operators, more than 300 carpenters and scaffolders, about 75 ironworkers, and some 70 crane operators. Photos on the Site C website show dozens if not hundreds of gargantuan pieces of equipment moving earth and erecting structures on the site, which straddles the Peace River at Fort St. John. Many of the cranes, trucks and excavators had to be transported to Site C, along with materials to build the powerhouse, substation structure, and ATCO trailers for 1,600 units of workforce housing. (more…)
by Canadian Sailings | Dec 12, 2018 | Keith Norbury, Other, Ports and Terminals
By Keith Norbury
Work is underway on a $15 million project to modernize the Keefer terminal at the port of Thunder Bay that is expected to enhance the Port’s project cargo business. “We’ve had this in the books for quite awhile. But now that we have the funding, we’re going to push ahead with it,” said Tim Heney, CEO of Thunder Bay Port Authority. The project recently received a $7.5 million grant from the $2 billion National Trade Corridors Fund that federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau announced in July. (more…)
by Canadian Sailings | Dec 12, 2018 | Keith Norbury, Other, Ports and Terminals
By Keith Norbury
From the Lorneville Mechanical Contractors Ltd. shop on the west side of Saint John, N.B., to the Irving Oil Refinery on the city’s east side is less than 20 kilometres by road. But the route has a lot of obstructions, not the least being a bridge across the Saint John River. And that meant Lorneville Mechanical couldn’t bid on jobs to build giant modules at the nearby refinery — even though the fabrication company had the wherewithal to make them — until this year. Making the move possible was the opening of the $7.1 million Spruce Lake Barge terminal on Bay of Fundy’s Lorneville Harbour just a few hundred metres away from Lorneville Mechanical. In April 2018, a pair of 120,000 cubic feet, 200-tonne refining modules built at the fabrication facility departed the new barge terminal for the refinery. (more…)
