Hard to contain their excitement!

In the not so long ago old days the front pages of the Daily News were filled with story after story of troubles in the pulp sector and fishing sector, both troubled by events beyond their control and no longer the huge engine locally that they once were. The coal and grain terminals brought their own tales of woe of low crop years or closed mines in Tumbler Ridge. In effect they painted a rather grim economic picture for Podunk over the last number of years.

Since those bad old days, the elevator has resumed a pretty hectic schedule and the coal terminal is presently looking at expanding its schedule to that of a 24/7 operation again. Needless to say, those stories are by far more up lifting for Podunkians that the tales of woe of not so long ago.

By if you want to look at the champion of the front page headline this year, look no further than the Fairview Container port project, it seems that not a week goes by that the front page of the Daily is not trumpeting the latest good news coming from the shores of Fairview Bay.

Story after story borders on giddy joy at what is in place at the moment and what is to come when the container port project is completed. A little less than objective as far as investigation goes, but when news has been so gloomy for so long, one guesses a bit of home town boosterism certainly won’t find many detractors.

Mind you if you read the Daily News on Friday last and again today, there hardly seem to be any other stories in town at the moment but the all encompassing Port project, to catch you up, here are the two front pages stories that acted as book ends to the weekend just past.

JOBS, SPIN-OFFS FLOW FROM NEW PORT WORK
By James Vassallo
The Daily News]
Friday, June 9, 2006
Page One

The Fairview container port development is already having a positive impact on the local community and creating jobs, said port authority president and CEO Don Krusel a yesterday’s 2006 annual general meeting.

“Currently, there are 62 people working on the terminal, of which 45 per cent have been hired locally,” he said. “But it goes beyond just people working on the terminal. Really, where the local benefits accrue is to the service providers and the local businesses in Prince Rupert in everything from cement to quarry rock, restaurants and hotels.”

“It’s estimated that anything from 25 to 40 per cent of the contract amounts, find their way to these local services and businesses.”

The remaining jobs are being staffed by employees from North Vancouver and Newfoundland, who traveled up with the companies awarded the initial port building contract.

“There’s a certain level of skill required with things like the pile driving,” said Krusel. “They have their crews and equipment that go from job-to-job and we just don’t have that skill level here in Prince Rupert.

“People bring their specific crews and where they can, they hire locally, that’s really why the numbers break down the way they do.”

The impact of the development was noticeable recently in the case of the Millennium Walkway, which seemed about to be completed and day and then suddenly was stopped.

“They have had difficult time accessing cement because the terminal was utilizing all of the cement supply in this community, all that they could grab,” he said.

“That show’s that there really is significant spin-offs to the suppliers and the service providers in the community.

“You just have to stand down at the terminal to see the delivery trucks that are coming from local suppliers, it’s a significant spin-off.”

Once operating, other socio-economic impacts include 125-150 people working on the facility. In addition, there will be another 45 to 50 people working as border services officers tasked with inspecting containers.

“There’s no way at this point in time to measure the spin-off benefits to this region,” said Krusel. “Everything from container repair facilities – were talking to a number of groups that are looking at building warehousing facilities here – reload centres, stuffing facilities, distribution and consolidation facilities and manufacturing opportunities.”

It is the realm of manufacturing that will likely bear fruit first, Krusel said, as companies look to take advantage of empty containers before heading back to Asia at discounted prices.

“Once we have those containers flowing through this corridor and a lot of empties heading to Asia, it will be a perfect opportunity for local businesses, regional businesses and Canadian businesses to build value-added manufacturing facilities here in the North.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that China right now has a middle-class of 300 million people and it’s growing by over 30 million people a year; it’s growing by the entire population of Canada every year. That’s a lot of consumer power and we are going to be connected to that economy once this facility is up and running.”


PORT LOOKING FORWARD TO CONSTANT CONSTRUCTION
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Monday, June 12, 2006
Page One

For the past decade it’s been a rough ride on the economic high seas for the Prince Rupert Port Authority, but calmer waters are on the horizon.

“Prince Rupert is known for its extreme tidal range,” said Don Krusel, port authority president and CEO at last week’s annual general meeting. “I’d like to relate that to an economic perspective.”

“The tide went out a number of years ago and it’s now coming back.”

After a severe downturn in product volumes post 1994, 2005 seems to be a watermark thanks to turnarounds by both Prince Rupert Grain and Ridley Terminals Inc.

“(RTI) are working hard a bringing back their coal volumes as well as in diversification efforts that are starting to bear fruit.”

“(PRG have) done an absolutely phenomenal job in bringing the grain back to Prince Rupert and they’re looking a favourable year this year.”

“While those two pillars have experienced significant returns, the third pillar of the ports traditional success – Fairview Terminal- has yet to make an impact, but that’s something that’s in the works, he said.

The contract work to convert the facility from a break-bulk handler to a container port has been broken up into a number of areas beginning with the wharf contract, which will see Fairview extended out into the water 18 metres in order to accommodate super-post panamax shipping vessels that hold 12,000 20-foot standard size containers (TEU’s). The second major contract was for terminal services, including lifting the existing asphalt and concrete and installing electrical, gas and waterlines.

Components of these contracts include $2 million for steel piles. $1.2 million for engineering work, $3.4 million for the wharf and $4.4 million for civilian construction.

The final contract, which will be awarded in a couple of weeks, is for the construction of the maintenance, administration and Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) buildings. A multi million dollar upgrade of the electrical power line must also still be awarded. So far, more than $80 million in contracts have been awarded with a completion date scheduled for June 2007. The cranes are expected in July 2007 and the site will operational in September/October of that year.

“We’re about 13 months away from super-post panamax cranes sailing into Prince Rupert Harbour and that’s not that far away,” said Krusel. “So next year by this time, who knows, we might even have the cranes up.”

In terms of actual work completed at this time, some of the steel piles have been put in the ocean bed and a “mattress” of large boulders have been laid down to protect the underside of the facility from being scoured away.

“When the vessels come close to the terminal they kick up a lot of water, if there isn’t some good sized boulders there, they can undermine the facility,” he said. Workers have also placed the korbel, a concrete-steel addition that will connect the current site with the addition, done work on the footing for the rear part of the container crane – the site can accommodate six of the 1,800 tonne cranes – and lifted the existing asphalt surface to make way for the laying of the new service lines.

The move is all due to an expected 300 per cent growth in container traffic by 2020
for B. C.

“Besides our Phase 1 terminal development, to capitalize and attract some of the… that container growth we’re looking at Phase Two development,” said Krusel. “Based on what we’re seeing right now, we hope and anticipate that the construction crews will never leave Prince Rupert. Just as we’re cutting the ribbon for the opening of Phase 1 at Fairview we’ll just roll the contractors over to the next site.

Hopefully, they’ll already be started and we’ll have to ask them to quiet down for the opening ceremonies.”

Phase Two will quadruple the size of the development from 500,000 to two million containers per year. Through its four facilities, Vancouver currently moves 2.2 million containers.

If that weren’t ambitious enough, the port is also investigating “Terminal 2” a third phase of container port development. That site, only a conceptual plan at this time, would be situated near Barrett Rock.

“With Phase 1 and 2 at Fairview, we will become the second-largest container port in Canada,” said Krusel. “And if we ever get to this facility we’ll be knocking on the doorstep of being the largest container port in this country.”