One effort in this direction is the Columbia River High, Wide and Heavy Corridor: a multi-modal route that enables access from Columbia River ports to inland destinations in North America, with an emphasis on heavy and outsized shipments. Strogen observes: “The High Wide and Heavy (HWH) Corridor will have longterm benefits not only for wind power projects but for general infrastructure, providing an alternative to the usual route via the Gulf Coast to Houston and onward from there. The aim is to provide a level of certainty for EPCs, forwarders and OEMs and an alternative means to access the US Pacific Northwest and Canada – without having to go through Houston.” That access to Canada is an important differentiator as a part of the Port of Vancouver USA’s strategy.
The port has been working for several years to penetrate the Canadian market; its expertise in handling wind energy components and other heavy cargoes destined for locations in the northwestern US is equally relevant for Canadabound shipments. Plus, the Port of Vancouver USA has certain advantages over its competitors across the border. Products like the Goldwind wind turbine blades that came through the port during 2020 are extremely large and Canadian ports do not have the necessary clearances to handle them. Having plentiful acreage adjacent to the water (such as the Port of Vancouver USA’s Terminal 5 facility) offers another huge advantage when handling large components of this type. Strogen points out: "One of the most expensive elements of the wind energy supply chain is trucking because there is a limited supply of suitable vehicles and drivers with the right skills and experience. Therefore, we need to keep things moving efficiently. Our role is the velocity of cargo – the expeditious movement of freight." The flexibility afforded by the Port of Vancouver USA's waterfront laydown space helps the port to play that role without putting
pressure on customers to move their cargo off the dock before the next vessel arrives. Wind energy components can be staged right there, and shippers can structure their trucking capacity in a way that makes sense not only for the job site but also for the permits that are available to take those components out onto the highways for their onward journey. Interstate 5, the main north/south West Coast road freight route between Canada and Mexico, is located just two miles from the port; and 10 miles away is Interstate 84, a major regional east/west freight route. Pipeline project Of course, wind energy is not the sole industry benefiting from the Port of Vancouver USA’s proximity to Canada. It has also been handling shipments for the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which transports oil products through Alberta, British Columbia and Washington State and is currently undergoing a major expansion that will enter service in 2022. Here, again, the port offers advantages over Canadian alternatives. For instance, its berth availability enables ships to enter and leave the port without delay, while plenty of acreage means customers are not under pressure to move pipes out to project sites immediately. Strogen notes: “There are only so many rail cars that are suitable and available at any one time for the transportation of pipes, and the project site can only cope with a limited number at a time too, so it takes several weeks to deliver all the pipes to the job site.” Similar to the handling of wind energy, appropriate equipment is vital to facilitating pipeline shipments. The Port of Vancouver USA has all the necessary equipment, such as special grabs that can grip the pipes without harming the external coating that is an essential part of their structural integrity.
Global Wind Energy Council, alyssa.pek@gwec.net, www. gwec.net Lifting Africa - Nov/Dec 2020
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Zander at Omega Morgan says: "With components continuing to get bigger you are now seeing transportation companies utilize a combination of road, river and rail to deliver components for projects. I see the inland river system starting to get leveraged more to help alleviate congestion on normal truck routes, as well as de-risk some projects from some of the typical roadblocks you see in over-the-road (OTR) trucking."