Singapore port expansion: impact on Labrador Nature Reserve?

Singapore to spend $2b on port expansion
When completed by 2013, it will increase annual capacity by over 50 per cent.
Bryan Lee, Straits Times 21 Dec 07;

SINGAPORE is spending $2 billion to expand its port, a move that will increase annual capacity by more than 50 per cent.

The project, in anticipation of continued growth in global sea trade, will involve the building of 16 berths in Pasir Panjang.

These will have an annual handling capacity of 14 million standard containers.

Singapore currently has 49 berths serving container ships which can handle up to 26.1 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs).

Work on the expansion began in October and is expected to be completed by 2013.

The Government has also taken extra steps to minimise the ecological impact of the project.

It has spent more than $20 million engaging experts to conduct studies on how the port expansion may affect corals around Labrador Park and has even moved some that would have been hit by the project.

'PSA Singapore Terminals continues to experience strong growth in its container volumes and we expect to handle 27 million TEUs this year,' said a Port of Singapore Authority spokesman.

'We have already fast-tracked our development of Pasir Panjang Terminal Phase 2. The development of Phases 3 and 4 is therefore timely.'

$2b mega project to expand Singapore port
16 additional berths in Pasir Panjang to cope with trade boom
Bryan Lee, Straits Times 22 Dec 07;

SINGAPORE is spending $2 billion to expand its port to beef up annual capacity by about 40 per cent.

The mega project will help ensure that the local docks, already bursting at the seams, can cope with the higher volumes expected from booming global trade.

The expansion plans - known as Phases 3 and 4 - will make space for 16 additional berths in Pasir Panjang, which will have an annual handling capacity of 14 million standard containers, said the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.

Work is expected to be completed by 2013, although certain preparation and conservation initiatives have already been undertaken over the past two years.

The project comes on top of ongoing port expansion efforts as sea traffic here has seen steady growth.

Container traffic grew 6.9 per cent last year to hit 24.8 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) - the term for the freight boxes - making Singapore the busiest container port in the world.

Volumes are forecast to rise even more this year on booming trade between Asia and Europe. PSA, which operates four of the five container terminals here, expects to handle 27 million boxes this year. In the first eight months of the year, volumes were up 13.7 per cent to 17.8 million TEUs.

The Pasir Panjang terminal, the subject of the latest expansion plan, is already doubling its number of berths over the next two years under an initial development project known as Phases 1 and 2.

PSA Singapore Terminals, the terminal's operator, is building 13 berths at Pasir Panjang under the first two phases to bring the total to 26 berths.

The company has spent $5 billion over the past 10 years on the terminal's two development phases. When these are completed in 2009, it expects the annual container handling capacity across its four terminals here to hit 35 million boxes that year.

'PSA Singapore Terminals continues to experience strong growth in its container volumes and we expect to handle 27 million TEUs this year,' said a PSA spokesman. 'We have already fast-tracked our development of Pasir Panjang Terminal Phase 2. The development of Phases 3 and 4 is therefore timely.'

Jurong Port, which runs a much smaller operation, is also beefing up capacity, upgrading quay cranes and extending the length of its five berths, said a spokesman.

The latest expansion plan for Pasir Panjang will have a total quay length of 6km, adding to the current total of 14.2km across all 49 container berths islandwide.

Some major roads in the area will also be lengthened and upgraded in anticipation of heavier road traffic from a bigger port. Harbour Drive will be extended eastwards while the intersection between Clementi Road and West Coast Highway will be upgraded with a flyover.

The contract for the project has been awarded to a consortium comprising civil engineering firms Koon Construction & Transport, Penta-Ocean Construction, Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors.

While still early days, industry experts tip PSA to be the likely operator of the new berths.

The company did not confirm this but said: 'PSA is working closely with the Ministry of Transport and Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore on this new development. Our customers can be assured that we will have capacity for them to expand their hubbing operations here.'

RELATED LINK

Labrador Nature Reserve: trashed?
Lots of rubbish near the work area relating to the port expansion project
on the wildfilms blog