Bechtel still a player in Sydney port project despite deal with Chinese firm

Multinational engineering firmBechtelwill continue to work with the Cape Breton Regional Municipality to develop Sydney harbour as a commercial port, even though a Chinese firm has signed an agreement with the municipality.

"We're very much still on the team,"says RexGundle, a senior port and marine project manager with San Francisco-headquarteredBechtel.

"In every major infrastructure project ...you have multiple contractors in the development of any infrastructure, and each engineering firm has specialities."

Mayor Cecil Clarke said in June thatBechtel was establishing a presence in the Sydney area andthe company was working to determine the cost of building and operating a container terminal.

Last week, the mayor announced a deal withanother firm, China Communications ConstructionCompany, for it to design and build theterminal.

Gundlenotes CCCC has a direct link with a firm that manufactures cranes used extensively in huge construction projects.

He also points outBechtelhas many of its own areas of expertise in port construction,and says the firm used thoseskills in recent years to buildtheKhalifaPort in Abu Dhabi.

GundlesaysKhalifahandles the biggest ships in the world at its container terminal because it has a deep harbour.

'Port that's ready for construction'

Harbour depth is an advantage that Sydney should exploit, he says, as themunicipality bids to attract investors for a container terminal.

There arealso more than 200 hectares of available land around the site, and there are no harbour bridges preventing ships from sailing all the way in, an issuefor many ports along the eastern seaboard.

Bechtelis conducting a $650,000 feasibilitystudy for a terminal,with costs split between the company,CBRM, andHarbor-Port Development Partners, which has been hired to market the port.

Gundle refers to Sydney as "a port that's ready for construction,"and describes it as the front-runner among east coast cities seeking a terminal.

"The project-owner is in possession of all the permits necessary to start construction," he says, outlining what he sees as the port's many advantages for vast container ships coming from Asia, the Middle East and northern Europe."

"It's two days closer sailing than New York,three days closer than Virginia.It's two days closer than Montreal, with the ability to handle bigger ships."

Low costs, big ships

He says the company is working hard to build a business case for the proposed container terminal.

As for the Chinese company's involvement,Gundlesays it's preferable to have many firms devoted to making the project happen becausethere's so much work to bring it to fruition.

What it comes down to, he says, is creating a container terminal that keeps costs down for shipping companies.

To attract container business, the proposed terminal must be able to offer lower port costs andwelcome the biggest container ships on the planet,because the unit cost per container goes down as the number a ship can carry rises.

Gundlebelieves that's what Sydney can accomplish: "a low-cost terminal operation."

He says the port project's primary focus is trans-shipment of containers.That means shipping them overseas to Sydney on one super-sized vesseland then discharging containers to other ships, whichthen transport them to ports on the U.S. east coast and the Montreal area.