Finally some progress at the Fairview Terminal site

Those that were wondering if the container port project would ever get underway can rest a little easier these days. With a barge on the way carrying steel pilings to extend the dock, the Fairview Terminal site is about get its long awaited makeover.

With construction about to start, the days of driving down Scott road to take a look at the site are soon to be numbered. In a matter of days a new gate will be installed just past the cemetery road and with it all access will cut off to all but those involved in the construction process.

The Daily News had full details on the progress in its Wednesday edition, and it’s provided here in Podunkicized form.



CONSTRUCTION STARTS AT CONTAINER PORT
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, May 5, 2006
Page One

The Fairview Container Terminal is now a construction zone.

The steel pipes that will support the dock extension at the Fairview Container Terminal have left Vancouver by barge and are expected to arrive by the end of the week, depending on weather conditions.

In preparation for construction, the security gate for the Commissionaire has been moved to the site entrance and the port is planning to install a gate just past the cemetery entrance and rock wall on Scott Road.

“We have to control access,” said Lorne Keller, vice president of marketing and development with the Prince Rupert Port Authority.

“It is a construction site. There will be open trenches and equipment moving around and for safety reasons it will be restricted access.”

Fraser River Pile and Dredge – which also worked extensively on the Northland Cruise Terminal dock – and Western Industrial Contractors are the contractors working on the marine portion of the Fairview Terminal conversion. Their work will include extending the current dockface out into deep water through the construction of a 400 metre new berth.

While the steel pipes – some four kilometers of it will arrive this week, pile driving is note expected to begin until the latter half of April said Keller.

“Obviously, the contractor has a number of things to do before that,” he said.

In terms of noise, he said the pile driving is not expected to be that bad. Unlike pile driving for the cruise ship dock, which produced a hammering sound, the piles at Fairview will be driven using vibration.

“It will only take about 20 or 30 minutes to get it down into the bedrock,” he said. “Noise should not be much of an issue.”

However, the port will be setting up a 24-hour telephone, so if anyone has any issues with the construction they can call-in their concerns.

Keller said the port authority expects to be issuing a lot of notices in the coming weeks, notifying the public about construction activity. Because Fairview Terminal is a construction site and work will take place on the water and adjacent to the shipping channel, the port will be reminding people that it is a non-fishing area within the port harbour limits.

The port will also be asking mariners to reduce speed and stay clear of buoys in the area.

“We’d like them to be more cautious going by Fairview,” Keller said.

Meanwhile, work crews upgrading the CN rail line in anticipation of the container terminal development have begun replacing ties around the region.

CN has been stockpiling some 12,000 rail ties on the Prince Rupert waterfront in preparation for a spring line-maintenance program, the likes of which has not been seen for some time.

CN is one of several partners contributing funding for the Fairview Container Terminal. CN committed $30 million last April - $25 million will be for tracks at the terminal site itself and $5 million will be spend upgrading the lines to handle double-stacked container cars between Rupert and Prince George.

The new Fairview Container Terminal will move 500,000 TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units) per year.

It is uniquely designed to efficiently handle the largest concentration of intermodal rail business.

The intermodal yard at Fairview will have seven working tracks and six storage tracks, enough to hold more than 17,000 feet of train, CN will also invest in additional rolling stock.

When the first phase of the terminal becomes operational in 2007, the number of train trips into the area will increase. However, container trains are not expected to pass north of Fairview into town or use the existing CN rail yard along the city’s waterfront.