On September 29 the Prince Rupert Port Authority released the mitigation strategy report for the phase II expansion of Fairview Terminal, and the report to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency outlines a much more extensive project than first submitted for approval in 2009.
Expansion will now take place in to phases. Phase one is expected to get underway once a commercial decision to proceed is made, which would be in late 2012 at the earliest, and it includes expanding the terminal north towards town – something that was not included in the 2009 submission to the agency – and the construction of a five kilometre road connecting Fairview Terminal to Ridley Island to allow truck traffic to bypass downtown. Phase two, which will not get underway until after 2015 although a decision to proceed with construction and buildout of the southern expansion will depend on market conditions at that time, will expand the terminal south toward Ridley Island, but not to the same extent.
The end result is that the terrestrial portion of the terminal has been reduced from 33 hectares to 15.7 hectares and the amount of material to be disposed of at sea is reduced from 1.8 million cubic metres to just 180,000 cubic metres.
Another change from the 2009 submission is the number of ships calling on Prince Rupert and the number of trucks moving through the terminal. According to the report, when phase one of the expansion is complete there is projected to be 10 vessels per week calling on Prince Rupert along with 1,570 truck movements while the second stage of the expansion could see up to 14 vessels per week and 2,500 truck movements per week.
To accommodate the increased vessel traffic the Prince Rupert Port Authority is planning to add an additional six cranes to the existing three currently at the terminal.
Along with the truck and vessel traffic, the number of trains moving in and out of Fairview Terminal is expected to increase 10 per day, with five inbound and five outbound each day.