Name of the Project
Durban port upgrade and expansion project.

Location
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Client
The Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) and Transnet Port Terminals (TPT), divisions of freight logistics company Transnet.

Project Description
The Port of Durban handles about 64% of the country’s seaborne cargo, with the Durban Container Terminal (DCT) being the biggest and busiest in the southern hemisphere.

Transnet is implementing an ambitious expansion project at the Durban port and its container terminals, comprising several individual work packages, to increase the DCT’s container-handling capacity.

The main projects include the expansion of the DCT Pier 1, which aims to increase the capacity of the terminal to 2.4-million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). This includes the Salisbury Island project, also known as the Pier 1 Phase 2 Infill project.

The TNPA also plans to deepen berths 203 to 205 at the the DCT, which could raise the capacity of Pier 2 from 2.4-million TEUs to 2.9-million TEUs.

The berths will be deepened from 12.8 m to 16.5 m and lengthened from 914 m to 1 210 m to enable the DCT to handle three 350 m vessels simultaneously. Construction is expected to begin this year and be completed in 2022. Together the projects are expected to increase the DCT’s capacity from 3.6-million TEUs to about 5.3-million TEUs.

Container capacity is also being created at other terminals, such as the Durban Ro-Ro and Maydon Wharf terminals, through the acquisition of new equipment, including mobile cranes and various infrastructure upgrades.

Transnet is further proposing the phased development of the so-called Durban Dig-Out Port (DDOP) on the old Durban International Airport (DIA) site, among other projects.

Jobs to Be Created
The Maydon Wharf infrastructure upgrade has created 127 jobs, including general and semiskilled workers, safety officers and storepeople, as well as project managers. A skills development programme has resulted in the training of 206 people in lifting and rigging, construction, project management and safety.

Value
The project forms part of Transnet’s larger R340-billion to R380-billion ten-year rolling market demand strategy (MDS).

Funding for the new dig-out port at the DIA has not been included in the strategy.

Duration
Ongoing.

Latest Developments
The TNPA has celebrated a significant milestone, with the Port of Durban’s Maydon Wharf precinct having serviced Bright Sky, the first vessel to use the common-user Berth 14 after its reconstruction.

Forming part of a six-berth reconstruction project at the port, berths 13 and 14 are now fully operational, deeper and safer for bigger ships calling at the port.

Transnet Group Capital – which is executing this major project on behalf of TNPA – completed work on both berths within the project’s timeframe.

“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,” Port of Durban manager Moshe Motlohi has said.

The R1.5-billion project to rebuild and deepen six berths at Maydon Wharf – berths 1 to 4 and berths 13 and 14 – was awarded to the Stefanutti Stocks Axsys joint venture in 2014.

It forms an integral part of Transnet’s MDS, which includes the aim of enabling efficient and economic function of an integrated port system to promote economic growth.

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

Built more than 90 years ago, the Maydon Wharf precinct is one of the oldest cargo terminals and is the largest breakbulk and dry bulk handling precinct in the Port of Durban, covering 120 ha of port land.

The precinct’s youngest berth is about 42 years old, while its oldest berth is 92 years old.

The quay walls in the precinct were originally designed to handle vessels of about 20 000 deadweight tons (DWT) versus the 55 000 DWT now calling at the port.

Port of Durban engineer Malefetsane Setaka has pointed out that the quay walls of the old berths reached the end of their life span and were becoming unsafe for vessels.

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

The newly built quay walls will now have a life span of about 50 years.

The completion of berths 13 and 14 comes after the handover of berths 1 and 2 to port operations in July 2016. This brings the number of completed berths to four.

The project to rebuild and repair all six berths at Maydon Wharf is expected to be completed by 2018.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Protekon Consulting & Construction; CPS; IMPSA-Jikelele joint venture (JV); Kalmar African National Engineering, or ANE, JV; Hydroflow and Liebherr Cranes (Germany); Grinaker-LTA, Interbeton and Bafokeng Bateman Services (Bafokeng Civil Works and Bateman Materials Handling) JV; DSE and Dorbyl (subcontractors steelwork fabrication); La Spezia Container Terminal, Italy (three Liebherr cranes); Kalmar (straddle carriers); DSE (manufacture of structural components, and the erection and installation of mechanical and electrical work); Protekon (planning and designing the infrastructure for the installation of the Liebherr cranes at the south terminal); Protekon Construction (two new berths for Island View terminal); Dura Piling (piling contract – Island View); Basil Read (main contractor – Pier 1, civil and paving works – DCT); Chryso South Africa (concrete products – hard standing area, Pier 1); Lafarge Readymix (design and supply of concrete – hard standing area, Pier 1); Natal Portland Cement, or NPC (cement – Pier 1); Kalmar Industries (30 straddle carriers); TBA (review, analysis and simulation of DCT’s container-handling operations); Sarens Group (crawler crane); the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (loan finance); Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Company (rail-mounted gantry cranes); Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co, or ZPMC (design, manufacture, delivery and commissioning of cranes); Dredging International and Group Five (port-widening project); C3 Shared Services (codesign of security solution at Pier 1); Mott MacDonald, in JV with Hatch and Goba (widening of Durban harbour entrance and construction of Pier 1 container terminal); Blue IQ (financial coordinator for proposed container terminal at the old DIA site); Liebherr (design, fabrication, delivery, erection, testing and commissioning of the cranes); Stefanutti Stocks AXSYS JV (Mayden Wharf – main contractor) and Aveng Grinaker-LTA (electrical installation of nine harbour tugs).

On Budget and on Time?
The project is on schedule and within budget.

Contact Details for Project Information
TNPA corporate affairs manager Ayanda Mantshongo email ayanda.mantshongo@transnet.net.
TNPA public relations and media manager Port of Durban Nompumelelo Kunene, tel +27 31 361 8973 or
email nompumelelo.kunene2@transnet.net.