Though officials from the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority declined to comment, the RFP process for the planned new Southport Marine Terminal appears to have been cancelled. The RFP deadline had been pushed back to December, but all the notices and supporting material have now been removed from the port’s website.
It can be reasonably concluded that this is a direct result of the recent announcement that the state of Pennsylvania is to invest US$300M in upgrades to infrastructure and equipment at existing terminals in Philadelphia. The funds will be used to double the capacity of the port’s Packer Avenue container terminal, expand the auto terminal, and on improvements and new equipment at the Tioga terminal for pulp and breakbulk products.
Packer Avenue is to get US$200M of the funding, which will be used to purchase four new STS cranes, relocate warehouses to expand the yard area, dredge berths to a depth of 45ft (to match recent dredging of the channel), and electrical infrastructure for cargo handling equipment and shore power for vessels.
The improvements and equipment will increase the capacity of Packer Avenue from approximately 400,000 TEU to 900,000 TEU per annum, which, the port added, is “scalable” to 1.2M TEU in the future.
Next to Packer Avenue, the port will expand its automobile import/export facility, which currently processes 150,000 cars and is operated by Glovis America, by paving an additional 155 acres, converting a former seaplane hangar into a
second processing site, and making improvements to the existing processing site at the Pier 98 annex, at an estimated cost of US$90M.
The Tioga Marine Terminal, which currently handles imported wood pulp from Brazil, will benefit from US$12M for improvements to its on-dock warehouse, converting a second warehouse for food grade products, and the purchase of
a second mobile harbour crane.
Read this item in full
This complete item is approximately 300 words in length, and appeared in the December 2016 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 6. To access this issue download the PDF here.
By subscribing you will have:
