Port masterplan awaits Cabinet approval The new Point Development, showing the scale of the work, with 5 new deepwater berths in view … Durban hasn’t seen work of this magnitude since the early 1970s. TERRY HUTSON SOME OF the largest harbour engineering and infrastructure projects are currently under way at the port of Durban. At present they are centred around the Port of Durban Development Project 2005 (PDD2005), which involves upgrading the Durban Container Terminal on Pier 2, and converting the breakbulk terminal on Pier 1 to become a new container terminal. This is taking place concurrently with the development of the historic Point dock area as a new modern deepwater multi purpose terminal. The total cost of PDD2005 is currently estimated at R3.06bn – R1.61bn for the Point multi purpose terminal and R1,45bn to convert Pier 1 into a container terminal. In addition detailed planning for the widening of the harbour entrance to take account of the new generation of ships, particularly those carrying containers up to 6 000 TEUs, is in its final stages and the construction phase is due for completion by March 2010. The estimated cost is R1.7bn. Durban hasn’t seen work of this magnitude since the early 1970s when Pier 2 was converted from a swampy island in the middle of Durban Bay to become Africa’s busiest and largest container terminal. A new age was then dawning. Today it’s another century and another new age, and with it has come the realisation that the ports which in recent years have been allowed to stagnate beyond their sell-by dates, have a lot of catching up to do! Road show Fortunately the new management of Transnet and of the National Ports Authority (NPA) and SA Port Operations (Sapo) is tackling this and a national ports master plan has recently been completed and awaits cabinet approval. According to the minister of public enterprises Alec Erwin, the master plan, if approved by cabinet this year, will go on a countrywide road show early in 2006 to port users. Although details of the plan are not yet for public scrutiny, enough hints and leaks have appeared to indicate that there are further ambitious plans for the port of Durban. Among these is the acquisition of Salisbury Island, currently held by the military authorities as a naval station and army camp, and its conversion into container and car handling terminals. Complementing this, the Bay area between Pier 1 and Salisbury Island will be reclaimed to become part of the Pier 1, or a third container terminal. The island proper will be utilised as a new car terminal, taking care of the increasing demand for this facility on the port – the existing terminal is already performing beyond its designed capacity. Rubber tyred gantries One of the more encouraging aspects of this development is the news that Sapo intends equipping the new container terminal, which may be made available for concessioning, with rubber tyred gantries instead of relying on a straddle carrier operation. This considerably expands the potential of the terminal. In addition Sapo will shortly announce an order for another three post-panamax shoreside gantry cranes for the Durban Container Terminal – it is believed these will be ordered from Liebherr. Most ambitious The most ambitious part of the master plan for Durban comes with the development of the Bayhead area and the digging out of a new waterway and container terminal. Once this is achieved the total container capacity of the port will be 8 million TEUs, which it is estimated will take 20 years to achieve. At that point the plan suggests that Durban’s container growth should be capped and any further expansion should be elsewhere. The development of clusters at Maydon Wharf is proceeding, which involves the remodelling of the terminal layout, the commercialising of existing leases to bring them in line with market related rentals, and rebuilding of the berths as deep water facilities for modern breakbulk and bulk cargo working. So Durban has a long way to go before the House Full signs go up – and perhaps a future review of the Bayhead development, on land already owned by Transnet, will show that even further expansion is possible.
