Milestone start for new-look CT terminal

CONTRACTORS FOR the construction of the newlook Cape Town container terminal came on site on Monday (December 3), marking what terminal business unit manager, Oscar Borchards, describes as “a milestone for us.” The consortium of WHBO and Marine and Coastal will start by erecting a fence at Berth 600, expected to be completed in mid-January, ahead of berth deepening and quay refurbishment. The physical work of deepening the berth at 601 will then commence. “We need to go 10 metres into the basin to achieve a depth of 15.5 metres,” Borchards explained. While there will be many highlights in the terminal’s five-year expansion programme, the arrival of the first pair of eight super post-panamax cranes from Liebherr in Ireland – at a cost of around R50 million apiece – is certainly eagerly anticipated. On the issue of costing and whether Transnet’s budgeting of R4.2 billion might be exceeded in view of ever-spiralling building costs ahead of the 2010 World Cup extravaganza, Borchards says: “We obviously have some contingencies for delays, cost and the like built into the contract but it is imperative we stay within the budget.”