Hutchison Ports Port of Felixstowe has completed dredging works at Berth 7 of the Trinity Terminal as part of the port’s expansion for mega-ships.
Berth 7, one of the nine container berths at the port, has been dredged from 15m to 16.5m below chart datum and the berth box has been widened from 55m to 70m. Boskalis Westminster Limited was appointed dredging contractor for the project.
The berth upgrade, together with a program to extend the outreach of 10 ZPMC quay cranes to 23 boxes wide on Berths 6 & 7, are in response to the increasing size and depth of the world’s largest container vessels.
Chris Lewis, CEO of Hutchison Ports Port of Felixstowe, said, “The Port of Felixstowe is ever progressive and continuously invests in its infrastructure, equipment and people, with the view to enhancing its customer offering.
“As the number of ultra-large container ships continues to grow we will continue to improve and upgrade our facilities to meet the needs of our customers.”
Lewis continued that Berths 8 and 9 are designed for a maximum depth of 18m. The next phase of development will see further increases to the depths at Berths 6, 8, and 9.
The 19,630 TEU Manila Maersk, operated on the 2M AE6/NEU3 service to Asia, was the first vessel to use the deeper berth.
With a departure draft of 15m, the vessel was the deepest ever to be berthed on Trinity Terminal.
The deeper berths are being complemented by dredging planned by Harwich Haven Authority to increase the depth of the channel approach by up to 16m.
