Redwood City aggregate terminal gets go-ahead

Redwood City aggregate terminal gets go-ahead A proposed aggregate terminal on a former Port of Redwood City brownfield moved a step closer to reality this week, with a first-step approval granted by the port's governing body.
   The Redwood City Port Commission Wednesday accepted an environmental document stating that the nine-acre former liquid bulk storage site is clean and ready to build on. The site has been undergoing remediation by the port for several years. The approval now clears the way for actual construction of the port-entitled Marine Aggregate Receiving, Storage, and Distribution Terminal, which will utilize 4.5 acres of the site.
   'If eventually approved by the port and other regulatory agencies, this new terminal will return the former bulk terminal site to an income-producing asset after years of environmental clean-up on the site after (the previous operator) deserted its operations,' Commission Chairman Jack Castle said.
   Recent closure of a number of quarries in Northern California has constrained local supplies of high quality construction aggregate products, increasing demand for aggregate imported by sea, rail and long-haul surface transportation.
   Eagle Rock Aggregates Inc. is proposing to construct the facility to receive construction aggregate by ship from British Columbia for storage and local distribution. Eagle Rock's plan would receive primarily deep-draft Panamax ships with loads of up to about 40,000 tons of sand and gravel. The port wharf would also be capable of receiving aggregate delivered from self-discharging barges, with delivery capability ranging from 4,000 tons to 7,000 tons.
   Pending approval by several regulatory agencies, the project is scheduled to begin operation in 2008 and could grow to a full operating capacity of 1.5 million tons per annum over a period of about five years.