Waterfront: Shipping Infrastructure

[rinserepeat]

The Panama Canal is set to accommodate larger ships in a couple years - what is Boston doing to prepare for this coming boom in shipping up the east coast?

[HenryAlan]

I would guess nothing. Boston makes little to no sense as a destination or origin for ships traversing the canal. The only logical routes involving Boston are shipping between the U.S. and Europe. But almost everything lands via five or six mega-ports for processing, then shipped by road or rail to the final destination. Boston is not one of these ports.

[AmericanFolkLegend]

Originally Posted by rinserepeat

The Panama Canal is set to accommodate larger ships in a couple years - what is Boston doing to prepare for this coming boom in shipping up the east coast?

I went to a discussion at the Boston Chamber of Commerce last year and the outgoing Massport director was bragging about how much they had done to accommodate the canal expansion. It was actually pretty impressive.

They had already completed ~$70M in upgrades to the Conley Infrastructure, some dredging in the harbor to create deeper births and bought 6 "Post-Panamax" cranes. 2 from Oakland and 4 from Korea (I think). They also bought the former White Fuel Oil Terminal next door which will increase Conley's footprint by 50% and allow for the berthing of an extra container ship.

[F-Line to Dudley]

Boston's never going to be a big port, but they have been quietly moving things forward. Conley Haul Road is probably going to be one of the next projects. That'll keep the trucks off E. 1st St. streets by going from Southie Haul Rd. to Summer St. bridge to new-construction road on the barren industrial plots hugging the waterfront. The demolished MBTA power plant opens up the land to do a straight shot. That'll be very nice for neighborhood quality-of-life to get all those big rigs off city streets. They're also going to leave a side median on the haul road for future rail access to Conley whenever demand merits so they don't ever have to do the old method of street-running freight track down E. 1st. Only extra construction required is a single-track rail "annex" grafted a few feet off to the side of the Summer St. bridge, hooking into the existing Marine Industrial track. Since CSX is going all-container with its intermodal business model and Conley's already an all-container port, they want a piece of that.


As for harbor dredging, New Bedford and Fall River are the two they're targeting for in-state expansion capacity given Boston's pretty limited overall capacity ceiling. I doubt that's going to happen till the 2025 range, but harbor dredging isn't as expensive as it sounds so it's more a matter of waiting for the demand to catch up before biting. Both have on-dock active freight rail access and highway interchanges immediately outside the ports (195/79 in FR, 18/6/195 in NB), so they're good locations. Better in many respects than Boston as a longer-term consideration.

[AmericanFolkLegend]

They're also going to leave a side median on the haul road for future rail access to Conley whenever demand merits so they don't ever have to do the old method of street-running freight track down E. 1st

F-Line, you're not referring to the"buffer zone" (basically a ribbon park down East First) that MPA has been boasting about are you? I hope that buffer zone isn't actually for future rail.

[F-Line to Dudley]

Originally Posted by AmericanFolkLegend

F-Line, you're not referring to the"buffer zone" (basically a ribbon park down East First) that MPA has been boasting about are you? I hope that buffer zone isn't actually for future rail.

No, no. This is on the proposed haul road. That's going to be set an entire block back of E. 1st hugging the docks across all that demolished industrial moonscape. It more or less starts diagonal from Power House St. where it intersects Summer right after the bridge (http://g.co/maps/2ns5n) and does a quasi-extension of the street grid from there straight into Conley with access to the rear of all those undeveloped waterfront parcels. The rail easement sticks onto the side of the haul road specifically so they DON'T have to bring it anywhere near E. 1st, where the trains literally ran down the middle of the street the last time Conley had rail access.


This haul road's going to be a really good thing. It basically enables E. 1st to get returned to the neighborhood while taking 100% of the truck traffic off and tucking it 500 feet back where it won't bother anyone. They won't have to travel on any city streets except for the bridge to get between the new haul road and the existing haul road. And it might stimulate some redevelopment of those bombed-out empty parcels that reach all the way back from E. 1st to the docks by subdividing them a little more evenly.

Rail's not going to happen simultaneous with that, but the current tracks peel into Marine Industrial Park right at the Drydock Ave./Harbor St. intersection so building that trestle next to the bridge is the only thing required to link the haul road ROW easement up to the existing rail access.



It's a little too bad the 'tucked-awayedness' of the haul road doesn't offer up a second stab at Silver Line City Point service that's any less crappy and inaccessible than the first go-around, because would be a fast and semi-private running route. But running down E. 1st was unattractive enough for the rest of the neighborhood, so this wouldn't be any better at attracting riders.

[whighlander]

Originally Posted by HenryAlan

I would guess nothing. Boston makes little to no sense as a destination or origin for ships traversing the canal. The only logical routes involving Boston are shipping between the U.S. and Europe. But almost everything lands via five or six mega-ports for processing, then shipped by road or rail to the final destination. Boston is not one of these ports.

Henry -- actually Conley is served by both ships going to/from EU -- principally the Meditereanen Shipping company and ships going to/from Asia -- a consortium of several lines including COSCO (China Ocean Shipping CO), "K" Line, Yang Ming Line, and Hanjin

[whighlander]

Originally Posted by rinserepeat

The Panama Canal is set to accommodate larger ships in a couple years - what is Boston doing to prepare for this coming boom in shipping up the east coast?

rinser-- Port of Boston in general and Conley Container Terminal in particular currently supports ships designated as Panmax - largest ship to fit through the existing canal and they are evolving to support ships designated as Post Panamax

in 2007 COSCO (China Ocean Shipping) launched a Container Ship which it christened COSCO Boston -- this ship is almost as big as they come from Asia (e.g Panamax):

964-foot, 68,000-ton ship has been plying the seas since 2007, but had never yet sailed in to her namesake port. ..... "It just signifies how important Cosco and New England and Boston are to each other,'' said Massport Port Director Mike Leone. "What's really important is this is the largest ship that can go through the Panama Canal. It's the largest ship we've seen from Asia,'' creating thousands of more shipping slots for New England importers and exporters. Only four other U.S. cities merit a ship named for them by Cosco: New York, Norfolk, Long Beach, Calif., and Seattle. There's enough room on Cosco Boston for 5,089 20-foot-long shipping containers,

http://www.necn.com/Boston/Business/...248305272.html



To date the largest ships ply the US east coast Western Europe route some of those Post Pannamax can hold 12,000 TEUs

Here is another large ship RHL Fiducia which according to the maritime data website is currently tied-up to the pier at Conley (the photo was taken on a previous visit in February 2012)

Vessel's Details
Ship Type: Container ship
Year Built: 2010
Length x Breadth: 294 m X 32 m
Gross Tonnage: 54182, DeadWeight: 63069 t
Speed recorded (Max / Average): 8.7 / 7.9 knots
Flag: Liberia [LR]
Call Sign: A8VA3
IMO: 9426817, MMSI: 636091969
Last Position Received
Area: Atlantic North
Latitude / Longitude: 42.34204˚ / -71.01982˚ (Map)
Currently in Port:
Last Known Port: BOSTON
Info Received: 0d 0h 1min ago
Current Vessel's Track
Itineraries History
Voyage Related Info (Last Received)
Draught: 10.8 m
Destination: BOSTON
ETA: 2012-04-26 04:00
Info Received: 2012-04-26 16:53 (0d, 1h 53min ago)

[AmericanFolkLegend]

F-Line, do you know if the power plant owner has agreed to sell or demo the old Boston Edison Plant? That's been in the queue for like 15 years...

[F-Line to Dudley]

Originally Posted by AmericanFolkLegend

F-Line, do you know if the power plant owner has agreed to sell or demo the old Boston Edison Plant? That's been in the queue for like 15 years...

It's still there. Demolition of the T's old power plant further down E. 1st is finally finished after years and years of dragging and down to just environmental remediation, but spacetime has slowed and warped to a crawl on the NStar facility.