Bayhead dig-out option offers short-term solution

Durban will run out of space by 2010 – that’s official! TERRY HUTSON ONE YEAR ago FTW reported in the 2 006 annual Durban and Richards Bay feature that a dig-out port might be Durban’s only option of finding ways to increase capacity, particularly for containers and motor vehicles. Twelve months later the process of preparing to excavate much of the Bayhead and extend the harbour has got under way and the first public meeting has been held to inform stakeholders of what lies ahead and to prepare the way for an environmental impact assessment (EIA). The crux of the matter is that Durban is about to run out of space. Not maybe and not later but within two and a half years – as early as 2 010 and that’s official. This frightening forecast is based on some fairly conservative estimates of growth. If the port continues to experience the almost 2 0% container growth of 2 006/07 then it might come even sooner. Fortunately a lot of hard work has been going on behind the scenes as port engineers and other planners put their heads together to look for solutions, with the dig-out option at Bayhead having become the only likely short-term one. Hence the public meeting held in May in which the news was broken publicly for the first time, and immediate action. Last year the port handled 2.335 million TEUs, up 19.4% on 2005. Some relief is in sight with Pier 1 Container Terminal which comes on stream at the end of 2007, adding a further 720 000 TEUs to the port’s supposed capacity. But if Durban continues to grow at 20% the port will have added another 10 million TEUs within two years, bringing the total to 3.36m TEUs – beyond Durban’s said capacity. And this in 2009. Of course the port has for some years now continued to handle in excess of what is said to be its design capacity – this has been achieved by working smarter and finding better ways to operate the terminal. It may be called upon again. But even at much more moderate growth rates the port will still reach the 3m mark before 2010 – hence the urgency of seeking approval for the process of digging out part of the Bayhead and creating new terminal berths and stacking areas. However a lot of regulatory work remains to be done before that is possible, which includes getting past the EIA. Port users will recall that it was an EIA in 1996/97 that stopped the then Portnet’s plans of extending the Durban Container Terminal onto the central sandbanks. More recently it was an EIA that stopped Cape Town’s container terminal expansion dead in its tracks, so don’t look at the Bayhead proposal as a dead cert. Not yet. The cost to Durban from not being able to provide the required container capacity in the port amounts to an estimated R18 billion of local expenditure annually. Progressively Durban would lose its position as the region’s premier port. At Durban container handling is seen as the preferred activity of the port, followed by the petro-chemical and motor vehicle activity, although there is also recognition that the port’s diversified activities should also be retained. For instance Durban handles as much breakbulk cargo as all six other ports combined and the attendant warehousing and logistics businesses are essential ingredients of both the port and city. Provided the dig-out process gets the goahead, the first step will be to begin widening the channels leading to the Bayhead, reaching past Maydon Wharf on one side and DCT on the other. The existing turning basin will have to be widened with dredging and excavation of a large new basin extending down the course of the Umhlatuzana River almost as far as Edwin Swales VC Drive to follow. Land on either side of this basin will be developed as new container terminals. To give some idea of the magnitude of this project, the Bayhead terminal will have eight berths each of around 300m in length, capable of handling among the largest ships likely to come to South Africa and a capacity of some 5 million TEUs. To place this in perspective the existing DCT has seven berths and the new Ngqura terminal just two, with another two in the pipeline. The plan is first to complete the terminal on the west side of the new basin with the other side closest to the Bluff following later. But before this can happen the railway marshalling yards in Bayhead will have to be relocated, along with a variety of tenants on the former Spoornet-occupied land. Also facing relocation are the many Bayhead tenants facing onto the harbour and along Bayhead Road, including the ship repair and building firms. Some of them have been here for many years and are an indispensable part of although FTW readers got a look at the proposal back in June last year. The unprecedented growth that both Durban and the country is experiencing requires urgent the port of Durban – and there is no clarity yet as to what the future has to offer for them. What seems certain is that many will have to relocate or close down although reconfiguration of the new basin dig-out may allow sections of this industry to remain. As planned now the new container terminal will only be completed for shipping in 2014, and from 2010 Transnet expects that some overflow of containers will have to be handled at other ports. Ngqura is seen as the most suitable to benefit from this with feeder vessels moving the containers on to other ports including Durban. However, to make this effective Transnet will have to look urgently at creating the infrastructure and systems for containers to be railed between Ngqura and Gauteng during this period. The announcement that private enterprise will be invited to take part in the operation of the Ngqura Container Terminal only adds to the complexity of the matter. The Bayhead dig-out is seen as a short-term development, with future expansion extending to the present Durban International Airport site to the south of the port. What the planners are saying is ‘don’t write off Durban just yet – you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.’