RE-BERTH
THE PORT OF WILMINGTON LAUNCHES A $150 MILLION INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN
ALONG THE BY SIMON GONZALEZ | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALLISON POTTER
T
HE HANJIN BALTIMORE was due
to dock at the Port of Wilmington in
a few hours, but Paul Cozza couldn’t
wait. The executive director of the
North Carolina State Ports Authority
was part of a contingent that headed to
Southport on July 5, 2016, to catch the
first glimpse of the giant cargo ship as it
started the 26-mile journey up the Cape
Fear River.
“Some of the senior management went down to Southport to
see her come in, then raced back up to see her dock,” he says.
“It was really pretty cool. There was a lot of pride within the
organization.”
Cargo ships berth in Wilmington several times a
week, but there was something special about the
Hanjin Baltimore, a container ship nearly 1,000 feet
long and 140 feet wide and capable of carrying up
to 7,500 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, the
standard cargo measurement.
The big ship was a big deal, because it was the largest ever to
come to Wilmington. The Hanjin Baltimore became the first to
take advantage of infrastructure improvements at the port.
“It is about 63 percent carrying capacity bigger than any ship
we’ve had here,” Cozza said at the time. “It’s a good day for the
state. It’s great for the Port City.”
One month later an even bigger vessel, the Yang Ming
Unity — measuring 1,101 feet in length and carrying
around 8,200 TEUs — became the first to maneuver
in the port’s 1,400-foot turning basin, widened from
1,200 feet to accommodate larger vessels.
The project was completed the first
week in August, about six months
after work began.
The Independent Pursuit, a container ship built in 2007 that sails under the flag of Liberia, docks at the Port of Wilmington in September.
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WBM october 2017