Durban builds for the future with wider and deeper entrance Work begins in 2005

TERRY HUTSON
EARLIER THIS year the port of Durban commemorated the passing of a hundred years since the languid waters of Durban Bay were first cleared for large ships. This was a development that turned Durban into a vibrant theatre of shipping that no longer had to restrict large ocean-going ships to the dangerous roadstead outside the harbour.
With the arrival on June 26, 1904 of the 12,976-gt Armadale Castle, then one of the largest ships afloat, the port was signalling its readiness to take its place as South Africa’s premier port, a position it has never surrendered.
It’s perhaps highly appropriate therefore that one hundred years later the port authority of the day acknowledges the time has come to further widen and deepen the harbour entrance, for this was the very obstacle that first hindered growth for more than 50 years before 1904. Then, with the construction of breakwaters and dredging of the entrance channel, deepwater ships could at last safely enter port.
Now that same exercise is to be repeated, with the north breakwater being relocated about 100m north and the channel in between dredged to a depth of between 16 and 19m. This will allow the largest container ships, as well as much larger bulkers and general cargo vessels, to safely navigate the portals of Africa’s busiest port.
Work is scheduled to begin in 2005 and should be completed by 2007 or 2008, by which time the largest container ships in service will be able to sail safely into Durban harbour. And with the three Liebherr super post panamax cranes in service at DCT the port will also be able to load and discharge such ships were they to arrive.
What’s at issue is not whether or even when these large ships will call at Durban, but rather that the port has again built itself a future. The phenomenal growth in worldwide seaborne container traffic has changed the way ports throughout the world do their business, and Durban is required to show that it too can stay with or ahead of the pack and not once again fall behind.