WASHINGTON: Cruise ships docking at the Sydney Marine Terminal will get a bit more breathing room during the peak tourism season in a couple of years. The Cape Breton Regional Municipality has put out a request for proposals for a new berth and improvements to the dock. The closing date for those proposals is March 16. “The desire of the (Port of Sydney) to increase cruise ship berthing capacity dates back many years,” states a report included with the tender package. “There have been several occasions in the past when two and even three cruise ships have visited the port at the same time. “In these situations, with one vessel occupying the existing cruise terminal, passengers and crew from the other cruise ships need to be transported to and from shore via tender boats.”
The existing cruise ship berth at that port is 275 metres long and uses bollards with a maximum capacity of 100 tonnes. But cruise ships which come calling sometimes require bollards with a capacity of up to 300 tonnes. Under the current request for proposals, the municipality is seeking to add a 172-metre main wharf with new bollards and a mooring dolphin structure, a 115-metre catwalk wharf section, passenger walkways from the new wharf to the existing pavilion, landscaping and the renovation of 3,000 square feet of space on the second floor of the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion. “The construction of the new dock as a multi-use facility will not only significantly enhance the port’s ability to accommodate increased cruise ship visits but also provide infrastructure for non-cruise related activity,” Brad Kennedy, a senior structural engineer with the engineering consulting firm of CBCL Ltd., wrote in a letter to the port’s general manager in mid-January.
The Port of Sydney, which welcomed 100,000 visitors in 2015, saw cruise ship passenger traffic increase last year. “The new berth would not replace the existing cruise ship/petroleum off-loading dock facility but would enhance the capacity of the existing terminal to accommodate, ideally, an additional two vessels simultaneously as well as support other port activity . . . outside the cruise industry,” reads the tender document. The new wharf is slated for completion by Nov. 31 next year.
