Nanaimo studies port expansion

The Nanaimo Port Authority has received federal funding to study potential for expanding its facilities.

The Port of Nanaimo is on the east coast of Vancouver Island, across the Strait of Georgia from Vancouver.

The federal government has committed up to $600,000, under the National Trade Corridors Fund, for the Nanaimo Port Authority to study the expansion of container handling capacity; the development of land near the port to support economic growth, job creation, and trade; and the assessment of potential improvements to the transportation of cargo by sea over short distances between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.

The study will determine the possibility of expanding the Duke Point Terminal, to help alleviate bottlenecks at Vancouver’s deep-sea terminals. It will also explore the feasibility of improving the terminal’s infrastructure, providing better connectivity to transfer cargo from barges to rail cars on the mainland.

The Pacific region could see increased import/export capacity of goods from the forestry and agriculture sectors, as well as seafood and other food sectors.

The Duke Point Terminal already has a barge service to Vancouver. Its facilities include a deep sea berth with a length of 170 m (558 ft) and depth alongside of 13.5 m (44 ft). A 40 metric tonne container handling gantry crane and a mobile harbour crane with 104 metric tonne capacity and 51 m outreach. The terminal has six hectares (15 acres) of paved storage, and two hectares (10 acres) of unpaved storage. A barge berth adds 82 m adjacent to the 170-m berth, providing simultaneous loading and discharging. A storage area has been developed to accommodate heavy lift storage and can be adapted for a variety of uses.

The terminal is used for product exports, container handling, kaolin and salt discharge, fuel transfer and project cargo.

A multi-use area is also available, next to the terminal. It is industrial zoned property available for lease and has lease lots that range in size from two to four hectares. A 100-tonne barge ramp is available, and short term staging property is available to users. Uses consist of scrap metal loading, lumber land, and discharge plus project cargo. The property has access to the deep sea terminal and all development services.