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Port’s crane project clears another hurdle

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, November 4, 2003

By Janice Podsada / Herald Writer

EVERETT — The city hearing examiner this week approved a $2.5 million Port of Everett project to install two 175-foot tall gantry cranes capable of unloading cargo container ships at the South Terminal wharf.

The activity is allowed under the port’s designation as a deep-water port. However, some neighbors expressed concerns that the project could destabilize the adjacent bluff, harm the environment and increase noise and truck traffic.

The project will require that 140 additional pilings be driven to reinforce the South Terminal wharf.

Hearing examiner James Driscoll issued the decision this week after a hearing in October.

Port Officials got the two 40-ton electric cranes from the Port of Seattle this summer. Officials hope to step up the facility’s role as a container shipping port.

When installed, the cranes will have the capacity to handle oversize containers that supply airplane components, a feature that drew the Boeing Co.’s support of the project.

Work must begin within the next two years. Driscoll approved the project but with 16 conditions, including:

  • Keeping construction noise to a minimum.

  • Directing all exterior lighting to point away from nearby neighborhoods.

  • Requiring a deposit of $50,000 — 2 percent of the project’s total $2.5 million cost — into the future public shoreline access fund.

  • Requiring pilings and deck materials be made of nonpolluting materials.

  • Work on the pier must not be conducted from Feb. 15 to July 15, when young salmon may be present.

  • An environmental study of the area must be approved by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

    When not in use, the cranes will be stowed in an upright position and will stand 230 feet high.

    Reporter Janice Podsada:

    425-339-3029 or

    podsada@heraldnet.com.

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