It will be months before North America's largest coal exporting facility is fully up and running again.
Last Friday, a bulk carrier docking at Westshore Terminals coal port at Roberts Bank crashed into a causeway, destroying about 100 metres of the structure, including a coal conveyer system.
The ship severed the only link with one of the terminal's two loading berths, knocking out half the capacity of the coal port.
An undetermined amount of coal spilled into the water, but no injuries were reported.
Denis Horgan, general manager of Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership, told the Optimist an assessment this week will determine how long it will take to repair the structure and restore operations.
"We've already mobilized and got the contract in place for salvage and, of course, contracts for diving, and we've got the engineers in place to fabricate the new stuff. We've also hired an environmental consultant to oversee that everything is done in an environmentally responsible manner," he said. "We're also progressing with the cleanup."
Horgan, who's been with Westshore for 24 years, said the cleanup and repair is something "that will take months, not weeks."
The berth that was impacted can handle vessels up to 260,000 deadweight tonnes using a single, rail-mounted shiploader capable of loading at a rate of 7,000 tonnes per hour.
Noting the coal port already operates 24/7, Horgan said there's no doubt loss of the berth, which is the bigger of the two, will impact customers.
Fewer trains will be arriving at the terminal and less coal will be stored at the site as a result, he said.
"It's the biggest calamity in our history," Horgan added.
"We've been operating for 42 years and had more than 8,300 ships come in. This is the first one we've had an incident like this," he said.
The last mishap of any significance occurred in 2003 when a major windstorm toppled loading facilities at the other berth. It was reported at the time the incident, which resulted in several million in damages, was blamed for a sharp drop in the company's profits due to lower volumes.
Delta CAO George Harvie told the Optimist Horgan contacted him and the mayor immediately after the accident. The municipality is being kept up to date and a meeting was scheduled for Thursday at municipal hall.
In related news, a barge used to collect debris from last week's accident at the coal terminal ran aground early Tuesday morning.
An official with Port Metro Vancouver said high winds overnight loosened ropes that secured the barge, causing it to run aground at the causeway near the Deltaport terminal. Nobody was injured.
A tugboat was dispatched to move the barge back to the coal port accident scene later in the afternoon.
Westshore Terminals Ltd. Partnership has filed lawsuit against the Japanese owners of the ship Cape Apricot that was involved in the collision last Friday morning.
