HALIFAX – Tracey Foreman clutches her camera to double-check pictures she has just taken of two giant cranes making their way through the Halifax Harbour.
Foreman and her partner Richard Campbell were walking along the boardwalk when they saw the $20-million Super-Post Panamax cranes owned by Halterm Container Terminal slide through the waters past them.
“It’s massive. That’s what got our attention,” she said. “We’ve never seen one this big before.”
The pair weren’t the only ones whose eyes were fixated on the harbour Friday. Dozens of people watched and snapped pictures of the two massive 1,500-tonne cranes as they made their way to port.
Taller than the Maritime Centre, they are now the biggest container cranes on Canada’s East Coast.
But the cranes actually began their journey to Halifax a long time ago. They left Shanghai, China at the end of May and travelled 20,000 kilometres to get to Halifax.
“It comes a long distance over such treacherous waters,” said Michael d’Entremont, who came out with his wife Beverley to Point Pleasant Park after their son texted them about the cranes’ arrival.
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“It’s so big. I’ve never seen one like it before. Very impressive,” Beverley said.
Fellow crane-watcher Dave Aves made sure to bring his SLR camera with him to snap pictures of the gigantic machines.
“I just wanted to see how big it was. It was a good size,” he said.
Halterm CEO Ashley Dinning wasn’t available for an interview, but said in a release the cranes will be able to handle any giant ships being considered for European trade routes to North American ports.
“There is nothing the shipping industry can throw at us that is too big,” Dinning stated in a news release.
The Downtown Halifax Business Commission hopes that there will be ripple effects through the city’s downtown.
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“The port is a major part of the downtown. There’s going to be benefits, there’s no question,” said executive director Paul MacKinnon.
However, MacKinnon pointed out there could be consequences as well. More containers would mean more port traffic, and that could mean more trucks rolling in and out of the downtown core.
MacKinnon hopes it triggers discussion of an alternate route for trucks through downtown Halifax.
“The fact that we have these big trucks rumbling down Hollis Street and Lower Water Street, it comes up all the time. It’s a problem in terms of business downtown. It’s a problem in terms of traffic and congestion,” he said.
MacKinnon believes the option of using the railcut to offload containers from the ships onto railcars needs to be looked at.
“As port traffic hopefully increases, this problem is going to become more pronounced. I think now really is the time to revisit this again.”
The cranes and the vessel they are aboard will be anchored in Halifax Harbour until Saturday at 5 p.m. then they will move to the Halterm Container Terminal.
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