Building the terminal of the future

The competition challenged the international port community, organisations and individuals to think beyond existing conventions and submit radical new proposals to plan, design and operate a future container port, says Moffatt & Nichol vice-president and senior port engineer Ashebir Jacob.

“[Our concept] demonstrated that a large, predominantly transhipment container terminal can be fully automated and fully electrified to provide high capacity and high vessel, labour and land productivity with economic viability and maximum sustainability,” he says.

“Moffatt & Nichol understood Singapore’s limit and scarcity of land. In competition with neighbouring large port facilities in East Asia, the country established the MPA in 1996 to develop a long-term plan for port expansion.

“The Moffatt & Nichol team’s contribution included the following guiding principles: headroom for improvement in productivity and efficiency through operations and software development alone; innovation without unmitigatable technology or business risk; highest achievable productivity with reliability; highest possible energy efficiency; full automation, zero local emissions (all electrical power); safe access for maintenance; and a scalable, phaseable, modular development.”