[ Hanjin Opens Largest Terminal in Long Beach ]

After 29 months of fast-track design and construction, Hanjin Shipping
Co’s. new container terminal in the Port of Long Beach received its
first vessel on Sept. 28. The arrival of the Hanjin Berlin marked the
opening of the 170-acre facility which is the largest container termi
nal in Long Beach and Hanjin’s largest terminal in the world.
Construction of the new facility involved the creation of seven acres
of landfill and the complete environmental remediation of approximatel
y 40 acres, which were formerly used for oil production and disposal o
f waste material. The contaminated soil was mixed with cement to form
a stablilzed layer of material which was then “sandwiched” between c
lean soil and paved over with concrete and asphlt.
The port broke ground on the $ 277 million facility in April 1995 and
employed 132 design and construction firms and an estimated 3,000 work
ers during the construction period.
When the terminal is fully operational, some 200 managers and union do
ckworkers will work ships and trains within it. These numbers will in
crease as cargo volumes grow in the future.
The terminal has a 3,600-foot long wharf and berth depths of 50 feet.
Six Paceco-Mitsui container cranes, each valued at $6.1million, will
work Hanjin’s newest vessels, which can carry 5,300 twenty-foot conta
iner units and are too wide to traverse the Panama Canal.
A total of 20 gates allow truckers to move inbound and outbound cargoe
s quickly and efficiently through the terminal.
The terminal features a modern intermodal rail yard that is capable of
simultaneously working two 8,000-foot long double-stack trains. Carg
o moving to markets east of the Rocky Mountains will be transferred fr
om ship to train without impacting local freeways.
The terminal has temporary storage for 18,000 twenty-foot containers.
It also has 652 electrical outlets for refrigerated containers. A un
ique rack system, the only one in the United States, services 144 of t
he refrigerated containers from six seperate three-story platforms.
Hanjin has called at Long Beach since 1979 when the company initiated
its trans-Pacific service. In 1991, Hanjin opened a 57-acre facility o
n Pier C, which it operated until moving into its new terminal.
The Port of Long Beach in now the busiest container port in the nation
. During 1996, more than three million container units were moved acr
oss its docks.
Although vessels are calling at the new terminal, Hanjin will host a f
ormal grand opening ceremony on Nov. 7.