Port projects under public scrutiny in Florida, British Columbia

The Canaveral Port Authority (CPA) on May 1 held the first of a series of planned community meetings to discuss the importance of rail and intermodal transportation to the future of Brevard County and the central Florida region.
 
CPA officials provided an update on the Port Canaveral rail extension, for which the Surface Transportation Board is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The authority plans to construct and operate an 11-mile rail line to Port Canaveral in Brevard County. The rail extension also would utilize 17 miles of an existing line at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center to connect with a Florida East Coast Railway mainline.
 
The project — which would extend rail service and increase cargo capabilities for Port Canaveral — is critical to multimodal growth and the development of the region and state, said John Walsh, the port's chief executive officer, in a press release.

"The concerns of our community are important to us as we continue to live up to our responsibility to respond to the market and provide critically needed infrastructure in order to help our economy recover," he said. "We encourage the community to show its support of a rail extension in order to make this happen."

Meanwhile, Port Metro Vancouver has submitted an EIS for the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. The EIS now will be analyzed by an independent review panel, a process that will include opportunities for public comments.

The port plans to construct a three-berth container terminal at Roberts Bank in Delta, British Columbia, on Canada’s West Coast. The facility is designed to handle 2.4 million 20-foot equivalent units annually. The project also calls for widening an existing causeway to accommodate rail and road infrastructure, and expanding an existing tug basin.

Container terminals on the coast are projected to reach capacity by the early 2020s, and the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 — along with an expansion of the Port of Prince Rupert and other container terminals in Vancouver — will provide much-needed space to accommodate the cargo growth, Port Metro Vancouver officials said in a press release.

“The region is running out of room to manage growing Canadian trade with Asia,” said Robin Silvester, the port's president and CEO. “The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project will ensure demand can be met while providing important economic benefits to B.C. and Canada."