Across the bay from the northeast West Seattle shore, one of those cranes at Terminal 46 (south of Colman Dock) just got a new lease on life, and it’s partly because of the Terminal 5 project over here. The Pacific Maritime Association is leasing the one on the left, Crane 80, from the Northwest Seaport Alliance for a new training facility. Two weeks after NWSA managing members – the port commissioners of Seattle and Tacoma – approved it, there was a media briefing at the terminal Thursday. Among those speaking, Seattle port commissioner Stephanie Bowman:
The PMA – 70 ocean carriers and terminal operators operating at the 29 West Coast Ports – has been conducting training at West Seattle’s Terminal 5, but won’t be able to do that once the first modernized berth there opens early next year. PMA’s Nairobi Russ talked about the training’s role in worker readiness:
ILWU Local 19 president Rich Austin said this fills a growing need.
To get ready for use in training, NWSA documents say, Crane 80 needs about $600,000 in work. The cranes became port property after Total Terminals International left T-46 at the end of 2019.
For use of the crane, part of T-46, and office space, the PMA will pay about $1.2 million a year. T-46’s longterm future remains unsettled – a proposal to convert part of it into a cruise-ship terminal was shelved last year. But the training facility won’t be its only near-term use – it’ll be used for container overflow too, incoming and outgoing.
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