Through its Environmental Trust Fund, the HPA will provide financial support to projects being undertaken by the Bay Area Restoration Council (BARC) and Green Venture, two well-established local environmental groups.

Implemented in 2010, the Environmental Trust Fund allocates funding to support projects that benefit the Hamilton Harbour ecosystem. Up to two projects a year are chosen for funding, which covers half of the project cost, typically up to a maximum of $10,000 per project.

“We recognize that a healthy Hamilton Harbour benefits both port users and the community,” explains HPA president Bruce Wood. “As the owner of more than 600 acres of waterfront land, we’re committed to environmental respect and sustainability.”

For 2011, funding will support the production of the 2012 Toward Safe Harbours Report Card by the Bay Area Restoration Council. Produced every five years, the report card updates the overall health of the harbour and indicates areas that need improvement in the push toward harbour and watershed restoration.

“It’s great to have the HPA’s support, particularly for 2012 with our third Report Card on progress toward delisting the harbour as an Area of Concern,” said Scott Koblyk, BARC president. “The Port Authority’s contribution will allow us to ensure it receives wide distribution and can be an interesting, engaging and dynamic part of our hamiltonharbour.ca website.”

The Environmental Trust Fund will also support Green Venture’s Healthy Harbour! Residential Best Practices Project. By encouraging lower city residents to disconnect downspouts and install rain barrels, the project aims to divert stormwater from the sewer system and reduce sewer overflow from being released into the harbour during storms. Data and experience gathered through the project will be used to build long-term strategies to deal with stormwater overflows.

“Stormwater is a major source of pollution in Hamilton Harbour,” said Pete Wobschall, executive director of Green Venture. “Funding will provide citizens with the tools, knowledge, and support necessary to reduce stormwater flows into the harbour. Green Venture applauds the HPA for their generous support of initiatives that improve the quality of life in our community.”

The two 2011 projects selected for funding were chosen by a committee of the HPA board, following a community stakeholder meeting held to gather input on potential projects. In 2010, the Environmental Trust fund provided money to support a McMaster University project to monitor and manage colonial nesting birds in the harbour, as well as a the planting of 12 Ivory Silk Lilac trees on the Navy League lawn on Pier 8.

The decision to freeze harbour dues for containers in 2012 is made after two successive freezes in 2010 and 2011. It aims at facilitating the return of confidence by container shipping lines and helping recapture containerised trades, a move initiated since the implementation of the French port reform.

The business was originally formed in 1988 as the Container Yard Control Systems (CYCS) arm of Morris Cranes UK and subsequently became Morris Port Automation. In 2002 the business was bought by the present management. “Over the years we have completed work in many major terminals across Asia, the Americas, and Europe” commented Richard Lambert, Managing Director. “We have a very long history in the industry with many of our staff undertaking some of the early pioneering in Port Automation in the 1980s with some of the first Auto steering RTGs, Automated RMGs and in the early 90’s Automated RTG systems”. More recently our focus has been on automated data capture to help to increase the efficiency and data integrity of existing manual operations. We see this as the area where the greatest ROI (return on investment) can be gained by most terminal operators, with the introduction of relatively inexpensive data automation. Our innovations have also continued in this area with ITS being the first supplier to provide a fully automatic job stepping function in full operation, and a pioneer in twistlock interlocks to prevent the wrong container from being lifted.

Our background and experience have allowed us to innovate without compromising reliability; in fact our latest systems like G-POS are operating in excess of 99.98% availability with pin point accuracy, and E-SMART is helping the terminals to increase the operational uptime of the container handling equipment (CHE).

We are very proud of our heritage and achievements over the last 10 years and have several innovations in the pipe line for the next few years to come.

The project, with an estimated cost of about USD 2 million, is expected to be completed in May of 2012. “This new facility will further boost the performance of our terminal and strengthen our ties with the government through the Batumi Customs Office,” says Jan Nowak, BICT chief executive officer and general manager. The facility will consist of a building, which will house the Customs offices, reception and client waiting area and experts’ office, and a parking area that can accommodate 300 cars awaiting customs clearance.  Cars and automobiles are one of the major imports of Georgia.”On behalf of my company, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to BICT for partnering with us in this project,” says Irakli Gogolishvili, Anagi LLC General Director. Located on the Black Sea coast of the autonomous region of Adjara in Georgia, BICT is the country’s trading gateway for cargo traffic to the Caucasus and Central Asia regions.

Headquartered at Manila, Philippines, ICTSI is a leading port management company involved in the operations and development of 22 marine terminals and port projects in 17 countries worldwide. The company was among the first international terminal operators to take its expertise overseas.

Photo shows contract signing between BICT and Anagi LLC. Jan Nowak (left), Batumi International Container Terminal chief executive officer and general manager, and Irakli Gogolishvili, Anagi LLC general director.