To commemorate the founding site of the Felixstowe Dock and Rail Company, the area of the former Dock Basin has been paved with red blocks as the construction of berths 8 & 9 near completion. Work on the original Basin commenced in 1882, and the first vessel was worked in 1886, exactly 125 years ago. The number of red blocks used has been calculated at a staggering 1,162,600 – enough to tile over 5,000 average size garden patios! Work on the new Berths 8 & 9 is almost complete. The 730m of deepwater quay is ready as are the first area of the container storage yard and three of the massive quayside gantry cranes. A further two gantry cranes are in position and will soon be formally handed over by the Chinese crane manufacturer ZPMC. The final two for the first stage of the Felixstowe South project are under construction. The focus of attention now is completing the remaining yard area including a new haulier out-gate complex, and testing the operational IT systems that will be crucial to the efficient operation of the terminal. Berths 8 & 9 will open with 730m of quay, but will eventually be extended to 1,285m in total. Initially dredged to 16m alongside, but capable of being deepened to 18m, the new facility is the only one in the UK able to accommodate the largest container ships on order.
Environmental benefits
The new terminal will also offer shippers significant environmental benefits. The state-of-the-art equipment, married with the economies of scale achieved at the UK’s largest container port, will result in some of the lowest carbon footprints per unit available. These advantages combine with the carbon savings offered by the Ultra-Large Container Ships that will call at the facility and the unrivalled options at Felixstowe for sustainable on-carriage by rail or coastal feeder, to provide substantial carbon savings throughout the supply chain. The Port of Felixstowe has two existing rail terminals, with a third to be built as part of the overall expansion project. The South Rail Terminal has already been upgraded in preparation of the opening of Berths 8 & 9. The most recent development came when Minister of State for Transport, Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP, formally inaugurated the latest new crane to be installed at the terminal in January 2011. The new crane is the latest of a series of investments made by Hutchison Ports at the South Rail Terminal. These have included extending the length of the terminal to accommodate longer trains, replacing older handling equipment and relaying some of the tracks. The New North Rail Terminal to be built at the port will be equipped with six rail mounted gantry cranes spanning eight tracks. At 729m in length, it will be the longest rail terminal at any UK port and the only one designed to handle 30-wagon trains. Longer trains offer more operational and environmental benefits than standard units, helping to secure even greater operational and environmental efficiencies at the UK’s newest container terminal.