Melford project moving ahead
Engineering contract awarded to Colorado-based consulting firm
Melford International Terminal has awarded its contract for detailed engineering and will also soon proceed with clearing the land for its container terminal and logistics park.
Attending the annual Ports Day conference in Sydney, Richie Mann, vicepresident of marketing for the Melford Atlantic Gateway said in an interview that the engineering contract has been awarded to Coloradobased consulting firm BergerABAM.
“We actually did some work with them probably right or nine years ago, they’ve done a lot of work with SSA Marine and they will also have on their team Stantec and Strum Engineering out of Bedford, an environmental engineering firm that has also done a lot of work for us over the years, as has Stantec,” he said.
“It’s an international form but it has some local partners involved.”
Late last year Melford issued a request for qualifications for firms to complete the detailed professional engineering work for the project. At the time, Mann said the move meant the project had reached the point where it had to bring in outside engineering expertise in order to move ahead.
Mann said they went back and performed another round of interviews with prospective engineering companies before choosing the successful firm.
The proponents behind the Strait of Canso container terminal have also contracted Port Hawkesbury Paper to clear the site of the proposed development, which Mann called “another step along the way.” They are expected to clear about 700 acres.
“We’ll probably hold off during bird nesting season but then subsequent to that we’ll move forward with the clearing of the property in preparation for what happens next,” Mann said.
He downplayed the significance of the clearing, saying they weren’t announcing any dates for any other milestones in the project, although he acknowledged it will be a visible symbol of the project moving forward.
Mann has attended Port Days for about the past decade and called it a good time to talk to others in similar fields and “trade war stories.”
“It’s a small province and a lot of the same faces are involved in a lot of different projects,” he said.
“It’s always interesting to sit back and listen. I don’t think there’s been any substantive updates or anything that probably wasn’t already known.”
They have already obtained the land, crossing agreements and environmental permits required for the project.
Work on the proposed terminal began a decade ago. The project cost has been estimated in the range of $450-million Canadian.
SSA Marine, Melford International Terminal and Cyrus Capital Partners announced their collaboration and joint investment in the Melford International Terminal in July 2016 and said they would proceed to the next stage of attempting to lure shipping lines.
The Melford site is privately owned, totalling 267 hectares 660 acres on the southeast mainland shore of the Strait of Canso with a deep-water ice-free harbour. The request for qualifications notes that it is envisioned that the terminal will include about 69 hectares with a 1,095-metre wharf; on-dock intermodal rail yard; container handling equipment; customs and cargo screening equipment; site security, utilities, truck gate, maintenance facility and an administration building.
Another container terminal is being proposed for the port of Sydney, with Sydney Harbour Investment Partners marketing the proposal on behalf of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, which owns the site.