Port fast-tracks repairs, upgrades before peak season

Barbados Port Inc., the state-owned enterprise running the Bridgetown Port, said Friday it is racing to complete critical repair and infrastructure projects ahead of the busy cruise season, including breakwater works, new fuel pipelines and upgraded ship-to-shore communications and waste facilities.

As work progresses on a number of projects simultaneously to ensure maximum output and optimal customer satisfaction, several projects are due for completion in a fortnight, said David Jean-Marie, managing director and chief executive.

One of the projects to be completed soon is the installation of high-bandwidth systems for ship communications with the home port centre, he added.

Jean-Marie unveiled the port’s plans at the Tourism Industry Update at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

“We were installing new high-bandwidth facilities to allow ships to communicate to the home port centre. It’s all being done, to be completed by the end of next week,” he said.
Repair of the breakwater damaged during Hurricane Beryl in July last year is slated for completion in February.

Jean-Marie explained: “Beryl damaged the area where the sugar work significantly undermined the structure, and that concerns us because that structure connects the breakwater to the rest of the port. We need the breakwater because we have many ships already booked this year or next year to come into Barbados and need that facility.”

“So we are working with the contractor to repair it. It’s all been boarded up. It’s being made safe and we’ve had vessels already.”

This project follows a $24m joint venture by Sol, Barbados National Energy Company Limited (BNECL) and the port to replace pipelines critical for fuelling cruise vessels.

“The oil line was damaged, for quite some time, we needed to have bunkers in order to fuel the vessels, particularly vessels at home port here,” Jean-Marie said. “ It took us a while to get it sorted out, but we have now completed the replacement of the pipeline along what would be, we know the sugar berth where the old sugar towers used to be, and the arm that’s out in the sea, the breakwater. That entire pipeline has been replaced.”

A new, modern but smaller incinerator has been commissioned to replace a 35-year-old unit, the port chief executive revealed. The replacement is intended to comply with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).

“This has been commissioned and is available for the disposal of garbage. We must provide garbage facilities in accordance with IMO MARPOL Convention, and that is what we have now.”

“One of the cruise lines, major cruises, important lines, is working with us on the project to recycle waste. We’re going to stuff the waste from the vessels into containers and then they’ll be shipped out on a weekly basis. This is a pilot project and we hope to expand it so we have less waste coming in.”

Improvements to the port also include developing new protocols for labour and equipment, and implementing electronic documentation for emissions and sewage records.

Jean-Marie said: “In keeping with convention and the need to be environmentally sound, we have the systems for ships to report on their emissions. You have to complete certain records, certain documentation, of wages, and so on, and it’s all done properly electronically through the maritime single window that has been installed.”

The port has also introduced a priority berthing policy to manage cargo versus cruise conflicts.

“We introduced a priority berthing policy primarily to accommodate our cargo vessels, or cargo partners, but it also helps with crews. Crew partners, they book years in advance; one, two, three years in advance, but it creates conflict with the cargo lines, and we needed to have a policy in place that would assist them, and it’s working quite well.”

Another ongoing project is Berth Six, which is instrumental in receiving cargo, said Jean-Marie.

“The berth has been done, it’s just we’re paving some areas. We should be using it for cargo vessels. We are using it currently today, for example, to discharge a cement vessel… but this will give us an opportunity to use the berths inside the port for cruise partners and create less conflict between cargo and cruise.”

“Last year we had as many as 40 … we call no cargo days, when no cargo vessel could come into the port because we have to give priority to cruises. With the introduction of Berth Six, that should be reduced substantially to only a handful of no cargo days.”

The port chief also plans to expand port facilities and separate cruise operations from cargo.

“We need to focus on how to expand our facilities. We’re still trying to fit everyone in the old water harbour…. We have a concept, and we now need to move this year to see how we can get this plan crystallised and go forward. These are the types of amenities that will be required for such a project or be the outcomes, so you can accommodate the largest cruise vessels, 7 000 passengers plus.”

In addition to recent training held by the National Transformation Initiative for taxi operators, service quality training will also be conducted with customs and immigration officers, Jean-Marie announced.

(LG)