DCT stacking expansion due for July finish

The DCT project is the last of the major jobs currently under way at Durban, and another headline development. One part of it is budgeted for R692 m, and is to increase the terminal’s container stacking capacity from the current 2.3 m TEUs to 2.9 m TEUs a year. It sees an area of new ground slots for additional stacking capacity, increasing the ground slots from 13 691 to 16 377. The project is 93% complete, and is due to finish in July. R214 m has been budgeted for the installation of the 600 m of crane rails on berths 203 and 204 for the seven new tandem-lift STS cranes. It is also intended to modify the existing quaywalls to accommodate the heavier new cranes. The job will start in May and should finish late in November this year. Along with that is the massive R3.1-bn berth deepening and reconstruction project on the facility’s North Quay, where, according to Nxumalo, it is intended to deepen the approaches to berths 203-205 from the current 12.8 m to 16.5 m. This, he added, will allow the berths – extended from 915 m to 1 990 m long – to take three large ships up to 9 500 TEUs each at one time. However, he added, the final design and capital investment value will only be determined once the environmental impact assessment (EIA) is completed – a decision he expects by May 2013, and with the execution phase currently planned from June next year. This should see the project reaching completion in 2017.