Deep sea terminal consent for Bristol

- The UK Government Department for Transport has giving consent for the construction of a deep sea container terminal at the Port of Bristol - one of the country's fastest growing ports.

Located close to a large part of the UK's container market and the deep water channel in the Severn Estuary, already used by the port, Bristol has excellent rail and road links. The port claims it is the only major one in the UK with north, south, east and west motorway and rail connections.

The development in the Bristol Channel will help the port develop its role as a gateway container port for the UK and a transhipment point for the Atlantic seaboard and Europe. It is expected that some lines will terminate in Bristol whilst others will continue to the Continent.

The new £500m (US$769m) terminal is designed to service not only today's largest container vessels, but also future generations of 14,000 teu (ultra large container ships) when they enter service.

The port has reached agreement in principle with APM Terminals and when all parties are confident that the economic recovery is robust, the port will seek to finalise these agreements.

Bristol believes it is the best single port of distribution for both the vehicle trade and containers, with 35% of containers de-vanned closer to Bristol than other UK container ports.

Construction on the new facility could start this year, with the terminal being operational within three or four years. When fully operational, the terminal will provide throughput of about 1.5m teu.

(Source: Container Management)