New Zealand: Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson is to soon receive a recommendation from the Environment Court to grant consent for the Port of Tauranga to deepen and widen its harbour shipping channels.
Although the court has directed the port and appellants to conclude final discussions over consent conditions, this is regarded as merely a procedural issue, as is the minister's actual signing-off, with the court having now made its determination. Port of Tauranga chief executive Mark Cairns is seeking liaison with stakeholders over the size and timing of the next generation of larger vessel callers, but predicted ships in the "4,500-5,500TEU range" was realistic in the medium term.
Budgeted at about NZ$50 million (US$40 million), the staged development will see the shipping channels in the port zone deepened by up to 3.3 metres through the removal of about 15 million cubic metres of sediment, ultimately enabling the port to accommodate 347-metre vessels at up to 14.5-metres-draught at low water. The deepening project is part of an overall NZ$150 million capital expansion programme being undertaken at the Sulphur Point Container Terminal over the next three years.
Iain MacIntyre
