CANADA's federal government has approved a CAD3.5 billion (US$2.6 billion) project to build a new West Coast container terminal in Vancouver, subject to some 370 legally binding conditions, the Globe and Mail newspaper reports.
The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 (RBT2) project, which has been in development for more than a dozen years, involves the creation of an artificial island near Delta, about 18.6 miles south of Vancouver, BC, and adjacent to the existing Roberts Bank Terminal, which includes a coal export facility and container terminal. Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, and BNSF Railway serve the existing facility via the Roberts Bank Causeway; that causeway will be widened to support more road and rail traffic.
The new facility is projected to take six years to build and will increase the facility's container capacity by 2.4 million TEU.
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) still needs to attract investment from the government and private companies or a consortium to build and operate RBT2.
"The approval of this project was not taken lightly," said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. "With strong measures, we will protect our ecosystem while increasing Canada's supply chain capacity to ensure Canadians receive affordable goods on time."
Robin Silvester, CEO of VFPA, said in a press release that the approval means his agency "can advance one of Canada's most important trade infrastructure projects to date, bolster our national supply-chain resilience, and deliver generational economic benefits for Canadians and Canadian businesses."
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