SOUTH AFRICA: Transnet National Ports Authority’s (TNPA) six-berth reconstruction project at the Maydon Wharf Precinct in the Port of Durban has reached another milestone with Berth 13 and 14 now deeper and safer for bigger ships calling at the port.

On Friday 13 January the Port of Durban serviced Bright Sky, the first vessel to use the common-user berth 14 after reconstruction of both the berths and a handover to port’s operations. Both berth 13 and 14 are now fully operational.

Port of Durban Manager Moshe Motlohi said: “The handing over of these two berths marks a great milestone for one of the oldest ports in the country. It talks to safety improvements and revamping of infrastructure which will further enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of our ports.”

The R1.5 billion project for reconstruction and deepening of six Maydon Wharf Berths 1-4, 13 and 14 was awarded to Stefanutti Stocks AXSYS Joint Venture in 2014.

Once completed the berths will have a draught of 14.5m enabling them to handle vessels with draughts up to 13 m, making these berths the deepest berths in the Port of Durban. However, the Maydon Wharf access channel will still need to be deepening thereafter to enable deeper-draught vessel to sail in fully laden.

Port of Durban Engineer, Malefetsane Setaka said: “The quay walls of the old berths had reached their lifespan and were becoming unsafe for the vessels to operate. This project has given new life and a safe environment for larger ships to berth.”

The project scope involved demolition of paving, rail track work and services, construction of new steel sheet piled quay walls, demolition of existing piled crane beams, extraction of timber, concrete piles and limited number of steel sheet piles and removal of the existing quay walls and capping beams.

Despite the reconstruction being identified as a brownfield project, the team had a challenge in obtaining initial engineering drawings for the berths.

“One of the biggest challenges was to understand and retrieve the initial engineering recording of these berths. This meant that the team had to spend more time in designing and reconstruction of the quay walls,” added Setaka.

The newly constructed quay walls will now have a lifespan of about 50 years.

“Our customers are the key beneficiaries of this project. They will now operate in safer and much deeper berths. We are also pleased that the project timelines committed to were adhered to by the project team,” added Motlohi.

The project has created a total of 127 jobs including general workers, semi-skilled workers, safety officers, and storeman as well as project managers. On skills development programme, 206 people were trained and attained various skills in lifting and rigging, construction, project management as well as safety officers.

The project to reconstruct and repair all six berths is expected to be completed by 2018.