HK Starts to Build Container Terminal 9Hong Kong's Container Terminal No.9 (CT9), a massive project of the port expansion of Hong Kong, was launched Monday."The start of the work on CT9 is an important milestone in the overall development of the port," said Donald Tsang, financial secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), at the Ground Breaking Ceremony. "With its completion in 2004, container throughput is expected to exceed the 20 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) mark. That's the equivalent of handling one box every one-and-a-half seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he added. The new terminal, consisting of 6 berths, will be completed and become operational in phases between May 2002 and late 2004, according to David Holmes, the project manager. The designed annual throughput capacity of 2.6 million TEUs will be added to the existing capacity of the Hong Kong's Container Port of over 11.5 million TEUs, he said. The total site area of the CT9 development is 150 hectares, equivalent to 139 football fields. One hundred and twenty hectares of land will be reclaimed from the sea. The terminal itself will occupy 68 hectares. The rest of the site will be used for access roads, back-up areas for parking and other container-related uses. In addition, a new marine basin will constructed, and CT9's quay structure will stretch for nearly 2 kilometers, Holmes added. "The quayside water depth of 15.5 meters has been designed to handle the increasingly large container vessels which are not only plying the seas today, but also are planned for the future," he said. |
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