Today in Tacoma, WA, the Port of Tacoma, the Evergreen Group and hundreds of guests celebrated the grand opening of $ 210 million Pierce County Terminal, a new 171-acre mega-container terminal, at a special ceremony held at the facility. Built on the 51-foot deep water of the Port's Blair Waterway with road and transcontinental rail connections, the terminal is designed to efficiently move international containerized cargo by truck and by rail.
"We anticipated our need for future growth and the Port officials here fully cooperated with us," said S. Y. Kuo, Vice Group Chairman Captain for the Evergreen Group, the Taiwan-based parent company of steamship lines Evergreen Marine, Hatsu Marine and Lloyd Triestino – all of which will call at the new Tacoma terminal.
The new facility’s 12-track intermodal yard accommodates 72 double-stack cars. An additional eight sets of holding track are situated outside the intermodal area. The truck gate complex has nine inbound lanes, six scales, three bypass and six outbound lanes. It incorporates the terminal operator's administration building. The intermodal yard, is also directly connected to the two major transcontinental rail lines, BNSF and Union Pacific, through Tacoma Rail, a regional short line service.
According to the Port, in its current configuration, Pierce County Terminal has an estimated annual throughput capacity of about 840,000 TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Container Units). A major gateway to Asia and Alaska, the Port of Tacoma handles more than $26 billion in trade each year. 2004 projected cargo volumes: 1.76 million TEUs (Twenty-foot container units), 162,000 autos, and total tonnage of 19.5 million short tons, including bulk cargoes, breakbulk and project/heavy lift cargoes. To learn more about the Port of Tacoma, visit www.portoftacoma.com.
