NW Seaport Alliance Okays Investment to Ready for Megaships

The Northwest Seaport Alliance, a newly-created marine cargo operating partnership of the Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma, has approved its first big investment in redeveloping a terminal in the Port of Tacoma, making it ready for megaships.

The investment will see the alliance assign USD 141 million for the redevelopment of the Husky Terminal’s Pier 4 allowing it to accommodate two post-Panamax class vessels at the same time. The redevelopment project is expected to be completed by 2018.

The alliance also plans to invest USD 22 million to buy two cranes with the capacity to unload 18,000 TEU ships.

During today’s meeting the commissioners of the two ports also gave a nod to Husky Terminal and Stevedoring for a 20-year lease extension for terminal operations at Husky Terminal.

The agenda of the next meeting of the two ports’ commissions will cover the Terminal 5 in the Seattle harbour, which has been deemed prime for redevelopment, according to Port of Seattle Commission President John Creighton.

As explained, the goal is to enable the Terminal 5 in Seattle to also be able to dock two of these mega ships simultaneously and thus boost the ports’ competitiveness seeing that this has become a standard of modern ports.