Port of Tacoma awards contracts for Evergreen box terminal

Port of Tacoma awards contracts for Evergreen box terminal    The port of Tacoma, Wash., has awarded a $46.2-million contract to Icon Materials to build a new container terminal and a dedicated intermodal yard to be used by Evergreen Line when it is completed at the end of next year.
   The port said that Icon Materials was “the low bidder ” for the contract.
   In related contract awards, the port commission of the Pacific Northwest port recently awarded a $38.8 million contract to Manson/Traylor, a joint venture, for wharf construction, dredging and environmental mitigation work.    Also, Porter Brothers Construction was awarded $7.9 million to construct major terminal buildings, including the maintenance complex, main gate and administration buildings.
   The $46.2-million contract to Icon Materials is the biggest contract in the history of the port.
   “While this new container terminal will be a foundation for the port’s future, it also provides a much-needed stimulus to the Tacoma-Pierce County economy,” said port commissioner Jack Fabulich.
   With a total capital spending of about $210 million, the Evergreen terminal project is the main element of the port’s five-year, $341-million capital development program.
   Capital costs associated with the Evergreen project include container and intermodal yards, associated infrastructure, utilities relocation, waterway and turning basin widening, and improvements to adjacent surface streets.
   The 171-acre Evergreen terminal will have an annual capacity of more than 480,000 container lifts, equivalent to 840,000 TEUs. The terminal complex will also have an on-dock intermodal yard with the capacity for simultaneously loading and unloading 72 intermodal rail cars. Evergreen also has options to expand the terminal to 237 acres with a 108-car intermodal yard, bringing potential annual capacity to approximately 1.2 million TEUs.
   The port of Tacoma said that it expects to handle 1.725 million TEUs this year.