Coega port blasting ahead
6 December 2004
South Africa will soon have a brand new high-capacity port. Developers say Ngqura, a multi-user deepwater port on the Coega River, and part of the multi-billion rand Coega industrial development zone (IDZ), is rapidly taking shape.
The government is spending about US$400-million on the port - and other improvements in and adjacent to the Coega IDZ.
Construction on the port is already far advanced, and the facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2005. It will have a capacity for accommodating bigger container vessels than any of South Africa's seven other commercial ports.
The filling up of the Ngqura harbour basin was completed in July 2004, which means that 5.75-million cubic metres of water have now replaced the 14-million cubic metres of beach sand that were removed.
With the depth of the channel and the protected position in Algoa Bay, the port is in one of the best spots for a harbour along the South African
coast.
A channel carved by an ancient glacier allowed the development of the port to up to 23 metres. Protected from south-westerly winds by a finger of land, the port's bay has 330 anchor days per year.
"We are now in the process of removing the bundwall", National Ports Authority poject engineer Selvan Pillay said in September. This is being done by the newest addition to Coega's dredger family, a "dipper dredger".
"The dipper dredger is basically a backhoe excavator on top of a barge", Pillay explained. "It is removing the rock - the hard armour - on the bundwall."
The dredging work should be completed by mid-December. "The cutter suction dredger is busy cutting a channel into the basin", Pillay said. "The water in the basin will then rise and fall in time with the tide. This approach channel is 70% completed."
Another milestone within sight is the completion of the quay walls - 90% complete by September - and the breakwaters, which were 60%
complete by September.
Pillay said the earthworks on the port were 90% finished. At the beginning of September, the 500th production blast took place in the quarry. 4.5-million tons of rock have been removed from the quarry, as well as 1-million tons of aggregate. Another 1-million tons of rock still needs to be removed, he said.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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