Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership general manager Denis Horgan told the Delta Optimist late last week that an assessment was being performed to determine how long it would take to repair the structure and restore the berth’s operations.
“We've already mobilized and got the contract in place for salvage and, of course, contracts for diving and we've got the engineers in place to fabricate the new stuff,” he said.
“We’ve also hired an environmental consultant to oversee that everything is done in an environmentally responsible manner.
“We’re also progressing with the clean-up."
He reportedly said bringing Westshore back to its former condition and operating level would “take months, not weeks”
Berth 1, one of two at the facility, can manage vessels up to 260,000 tonnes on a single, rail-mounted 7000 ton per hour loading rate shiploader.
According to the Optimist, Horgan had no doubt the temporary idling would impact its customers which are accustomed to Westshore’s round-the-clock schedule, including a reduction in train traffic and coal storage capabilities.
“It's the biggest calamity in our history," he said.
“We've been operating for 42 years and had more than 8300 ships come in. This is the first one we've had an incident like this.”
The crash on December 7, at about 1am local time, left a hole in the trestle about 100m long.
The carrier, the Cape Apricot, did not sustain significant damage.
Westshore is the largest coal exporting facility in North America.
In the hours after the incident, the primary operator which has throughput at the impacted portion of Westshore said it had developed a plan to keep output levels consistent.
“Teck will continue to ship through Berth 2 at Westshore and will be shifting shipping capacity to Neptune terminals and exploring options for moving additional tonnage to Pacific Coast terminals and Ridley terminals,” Teck said.
“Our preliminary assessment is that we will meet or exceed our sales guidance of 6.2 million tons for the fourth quarter and, as there is inventory space available at Westshore, we do not expect this incident to have a material impact on coal production for the fourth quarter.”
According to a weekend report in the Globe and Mail, Westshore has filed a lawsuit against the owner of the Cape Apricot, which it said was liable for gross negligence for the incident.
Company secretary Nick Desmarais told the paper it was “going to pursue the damages that we suffered”
While he declined to elaborate on details, he added that documents were filed last week in the Supreme Court of British Columbia to try to recoup as much as $US26 million.
Cape Apricot and its registered owner, Leo Ocean SA, are the named defendants.
