Transportation Award of Excellence
Centerm Expansion Hatch
C
A mandate to expand The Port of Vancouver is an economic engine, providing access for more than 170 trading partners around the world. The expansion of its containerized services is key to VFPA’s mandate. The Centerm expansion involved upgrades to the existing 24-7 operating facility, including: • Minor expansion of the terminal footprint by 15% through dredging and infill. • Provision of shore power at the expanded berthing facility, to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution. • Reconfiguration of the yard for more efficient operations. • Expansion and modernization of the intermodal railyard. • Relocation, expansion and modernization of the truck gate facilities. 26
CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER
• Provision of new electric-driven gantry cranes. • Reconfiguration and relocation of 11 existing refrigerated container receptacles (reefer towers) for perishable cargo. • Complete refurbishment of the historic Ballantyne Pier shed as a new, centralized operations facility, to improve efficiency of container logistics. Upgraded berthing facilities reduce in-harbour waiting times, to the betterment of supply-chain logistics. Rail and trucking services are improved through the expansion and modernization of associated infrastructure. And port-related traffic has been removed from city roads, reducing congestion and improving emergency access.
“The team took a comprehensive, overarching approach to the owner’s environmental sustainability goals.” – Jury
Solving challenges through innovation Hatch was engaged on the design-build project from the pursuit phase, with its bid-design deemed innovative and technically well-developed. The team overcame many technical challenges in the execution of this brownfield development. Foremost among these challenges, the terminal remained in operation throughout the construction, requiring complex staging and planning (such that compartmentalized areas of the terminal could be worked on sequentially), multi-party stakeholder engagement and co-ordination of phased deliverables. Hatch assembled a highly qualified design team for the demanding project. Beyond the owner and terminal operator, there were also many exterSeptember/October 2023
PHOTOS COU RT E SY VA NCOU V E R F R A S E R P ORT AU T HOR I T Y.
enterm is an inner-harbour container terminal that handles one-fifth of the goods shipped through the Port of Vancouver. The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) awarded a design-build contract to increase the terminal’s capacity. Hatch was engaged to lead a design team to expand, reconfigure and add infrastructure to Centerm, in a complex operating environment. The project has provided an increase of more than 67% in throughput, from 900,000 to 1.5 million 20-foot equivalent containers (TEUs), while only increasing the terminal’s footprint by approximately 15%.
