EUROPE

Ship canal gets new tri-modal port

23 years ago

A new £ 150m intermodal container terminal is to be built on Peel Holdings Manchester Ship Canal with a projected annual throughput over the berth of 83,000 TEUs, accommodating 250 ship calls a year. The berths will be equipped with up to six ship-to-shore gantry cranes.

A further 416,000TEUs will be catered for by rail with capacity for handling 30 train arrivals daily, giving a total capacity of 500,000TEUs.

Port Salford’s planning application has been submitted with environmental, traffic and other appraisals also being presented for the tri-modal port and warehousing complex to be served by sea, rail and road.

Two berths just downstream from Barton Locks on the north bank of the Canal, three miles west of Salford in Manchester, will provide direct access to the sea. A new rail line connecting Port Salford to the Liverpool/Manchester line, and thereby to the UK’s West Coast Mainline, will provide six sidings into the terminal, which covers 17ha, with 83,000 sq metres of storage capacity.

It is hoped that Freightliner, P&O’s Roadways and the Canal company will operate the terminal in a three-way joint venture. The planning process is expected to take 12-18 months. As a brownfield, inland site, it is not anticipated that this will be as contentious as Dibden Bay and other coastal port plans. The berths will be built at the outset and the construction phase is expected to take a further 12-18 months after planning approval is given.