A steel shipment worth millions of dollars has finally arrived in Victoria after it was lost at sea last December.
According to the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority (GVHA), the 204 tonnes of steel will be used for lengthening Pier B at the Victoria Cruise Terminal. The $6.8 million project, now scheduled to be completed for the 2020 cruise season, had to be delayed at the end of 2018, when the initial large-pile shipment fell overboard during its trip from China due to rough seas.
Following the loss in early December, GVHA staff explored a revised design with North American-sourced steel in the early months of 2019. The back-up plan didn’t come to fruition, so the project team reordered the steel from overseas and shifted the project completion back by one year to spring 2020.
In a press release, the GVHA says the newly-arrived steel will help create a 58-metre mooring dolphin extension that will allow for “Quantam-class sized vessels” to safely moor in port. The release also suggests this extension and the ability to harbour bigger ships will allow the Victoria Cruise Terminal to remain competitive in the following decades. The GVHA’s plans outline that the build will be adding onto the current 70-metre structure and this particular shipment of steel will be placed into the seabed, with most of the finished structure being underwater or underground.
The project is said by the GVHA to be one of the largest capital infrastructure spends in the not-for-profit’s history.
Construction of the dolphin extension will take place over the next five months and will be completed ahead of the new cruise season, which begins on April 3, 2020.
CHEK News
