Los Angeles port begins main channel deepening final phase

The Port of Los Angeles has begun the final phase of its 13-year, US$370m main channel deepening project (MCDP) after a five-year break in the project to identify and environmentally assess additional disposal sites for the soil dredged up by the deepening.

On Thursday July 22, 2010, a barge containing roughly 4,000 tonnes of boulders and fill material discharged its payload at a designated outer harbour location. The site will be a containment area to hold clean dredge material and expand the Port’s thriving outer harbour shallow water habitat by an additional 50 acres (20 ha).

Completing the MCDP final phase over the next three years is critical to future trade growth and job creation at the Port of Los Angeles, especially in light of the completion of the Panama Canal expansion in 2014. The widening of the Panama Canal will enable it to accommodate the larger ships that routinely call at Los Angeles and other major west coast ports, providing an all-water route to Gulf and East Coast destinations.

“The MCDP is a lifeline to maintaining our competitive edge during the critical years ahead as we face increased competition on a number of fronts,” said executive director Geraldine Knatz. “We presently have US$350m in terminal expansion projects underway at our China Shipping and TraPac container facilities and resumption of the MCDP is crucial to delivering those projects on schedule – a commitment we have made to those terminal operators.”

The MCDP project also will complete channel deepening in waterways leading to the Yusen/NYK, Evergreen and Yang Ming container terminals, as well as the presently vacant terminal at Berths 206-209.
(Source:www.container-mag.com)