The expansion
project involves the build of a new 1,138-foot dock and 8.5-hectare container
storage yard to increase CCT’s capacity to 1.5 million TEU.
In addition
to CCT, CHEC is currently working on a number of port related projects in Latin
America, including the $220 million expansion of Mexico’s Manzanillo port on
behalf of ICTSI.
CHEC says it
expects the CCT project to be completed by July 2015, right around the time of
the opening of the underway Panama Canal expansion project. The expansion,
which began about six years ago, is expected to double the canal’s capacity. It
was almost 45 percent complete as of Aug. 31, 2012. The project, which was
officially kicked off in September 2007, creates a new lane of traffic along
the canal by constructing a new set of locks.
Among the
project’s components are the excavations of new access channels, the widening
of existing channels and the deepening of navigation channels. The expansion is
expected to allow post-Panamax ships to travel through the canal en route to
East Coast terminals, something that could negatively affect West Coast vessel
traffic.