The Port of Tacoma plans to spend some $1.5 million to deepen water adjacent to one of its main containership terminals because sediments have restricted the terminal’s use.
Puget Sound pilots guiding ships into Husky Terminal on the port’s Blair Waterway warned the port in the summer of 2010 that several high spots on the waterway’s bottom were making it difficult to berth ships at the terminal. Later tests confirmed the pilots’ reports.
Those tests showed that sediment flowing from the nearby Puyallup River and scoured from the Blair channel by tugboats’ propellers and the bow thrusters of the ships passing down the waterway had reduced the depth along Piers 3 and 4 significantly.
The port’s lease with containership operator “K” Line requires the port maintain a water depth of at least 51 feet at low tide to allow the ships to tie up.
While the port has been seeking permits for the dredging and preparing for the job for bidding, “K” Line has adjusted its containership schedules so that the ships call on Husky Terminal during higher tides.
The port expects to receive its dredging permit as the end of this month. It will seek bids in December for the dredging which will remove silt from an area more than a half-mile long and 150 feet wide on the east side of the Blair Waterway north of East 11th Street.
The dredged material is expected to be deposited in a deep-water disposal area or on land. The project is due for completion by mid-February.
John Gillie: 253-597-8663
john.gillie@thenewstribune.com
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