CentrePort’s Wellington container services are back to both pre-earthquake volumes and vessel productivity, the company says.
The port company had almost $120 million in damage resulting from the Kaikoura earthquake on November 14, 2016.
The second rail line through the port is being reinstated and demolition is continuing with Statistics House likely to be fully demolished by March.
Removal of the Thorndon Container Wharf (TCW) 1 is underway. The old Pipitea wharf structure underneath Shed 37 (now gone) is being removed too.
CentrePort says the dismantling requires excavators with pulverisers and shears to crush the concrete and separate steel from the rubble. The steel is sent to a metal recycler and the concrete is processed onsite and reused on the port.
Port tours will be reinstated, with information provided in CentrePort’s next fortnightly update.
“We continue to increase CentreRail with the growing demand for the services,” it says.
CentreRail is a daily train service linking CentrePort and key trade areas in the lower North Island and upper South Island.
Other actions taken by Centreport include working to identify and improve its performance for all users, especially following the successful re-introduction of the STS crane operations in September.
Measures include implementing recommendations from a specialist port consultant (Hamburg Port Consultants) to optimise the current port operation.
“A key outcome from the assessment is to ensure that all the information relating to import containers (trucking company, inspection or fumigation requirements) has been provided to CentrePort through our Centric portal prior to the vessel arrival as we plan the container stacks according to this information.”
A modified process to improve the truck turn times and increase the number of containers through the gate has been agreed with carriers.
Continued transitioning of import containers to the KiwiRail CT site to increase the number of containers available for collection daily, and increasing port road pads allowing more trucks to be serviced, are other measures being followed.
Two new reach stackers are operational with an additional new reach stacker due to arrive mid-January.
CentrePort says it’s also working towards ‘One Gate’ to include both the terminal and depot to simplify the operation, normalising the depot and terminal hours and assessing options for an online road booking system.
Overall port access and truck pads are being assessed to increase the number of pads and have trucks collecting containers next to the stacks.
