Too many ports not deep enough, forum told

By John Satterley

Ships are getting larger and are rationalising in order to achieve scale economies and remain competitive. And ports must provide the depth for these more efficient vessels, a public forum in Adelaide was told recently.

It heard that Adelaide, which currently cannot accommodate the larger Panamax class ships (80,000dwt), may be losing 20,000 containers a year to Melbourne at an extra $6m cost to Adelaide importer/exporters.

Titled “ Developments in and around LeFevre Peninsula” the forum was organised by the Australian Institute of Traffic Planners and Managers as an information exercise. Speakers were Transport SA senior project managers David Bartlett and Steve Woodrow who described progress on the Port River Expressway project and its impact on a number of developments on LeFevre Peninsula.

Bartlett said the larger container ships now operating around the Australian coast require a draft of 12.5m plus UKC (under keel clearance) or an approximate channel depth of 14m.

In order to maintain schedule integrity while maximising port calls and exchanges the ships cannot wait for tide. With the exception of Sydney and Brisbane, the southern ports all have issues with draft (see Fig. 1).

The AITPM forum was timely, following a major speech by Premier Mike Rann in late March when he outlined a $300m development plan for the peninsula centred largely on integrating road, rail and shipping infrastructure to make the Port of Adelaide more competitive. The plan calls for the Outer Harbor channel to be deepened from 12.2m to 14.2m at a cost of $55m.

Contract documents were released to the three short-listed tenderers on April 7 last for the $136m Stages 2 and 3 of the Port River Expressway, including new road and rail bridges. Bardavcol is currently constructing the $85m Stage 1 of the project. This 5.5km-long four-lane expressway will link Salisbury Highway-South Road Connector to Francis Street with overpasses at the junctions of South Road, Hanson Road and Eastern Parade and is due to be operational by mid-2005.

When Stages 2 and 3 are completed in late 2006, the National Highway and interstate rail network will then be efficiently linked to freight centres at the Port of Adelaide.

Meanwhile, the Land Management Corporation, a public enterprise with a commercially focussed board, anticipates redevelopment of the Port Adelaide waterfront will start later this year. It will easily be the state's largest urban renewal project in 10 years.

LMC project director Warwick Stuart says 51ha of vacant waterfront land will be redeveloped over the next decade. The $1.2bn project envisages residential developments that will attract up to 4500 people.

The project consortium, Newport Quays, comprises builder Multiplex, marketer Urban Construct and financier Cbus. World-renowned architects the Cox Group will be responsible for building design.