(WSB photos/video)

Those are the shore-power outlets for the newly modernized cargo-ship berths at Terminal 5 in West Seattle. Neither outlet was in use when we photographed them during a T-5 tour Tuesday, because no ships were calling at the time. That illustrated a point made by representatives of terminal operator SSA during the tour – Terminal 5 has much more capacity that is currently being used. Its biggest-on-the-West-Coast cranes are serving an average of two ships a week, while the completion of the south berth means they could be serving two per day.

The occasion for the tour was a low-key celebration of the conclusion of most of the quarter-billion-dollar T-5 project. (A few things remain, such as a new gate complex on the dock.) We rode in a van passing several other operational features, like these smaller cranes, used depending on the size, destination, and contents of containers:

Pre-existing rail access was originally cited as a major reason for choosing to modernize T-5, but it’s not being maxed out either; SSA says the on-dock rail has vastly more capacity than is being used. Another major motivation for the modernization was to enable T-5 to handle the bigger ships that are being built now; its client for both berths is MSC, and so far, SSA says, most of the ships calling are 10,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent unit, a measurement of cargo-ship capacity) – a few 15,000 – and they said during the tour that a 19,000-TEU ship, may stop here soon. The Northwest Seaport Alliance, the combined Seattle-Tacoma cargo-port authority, says a big challenge is that this is a “discretionary” port – most of the cargo that arrives here is headed somewhere else, not to this area. But they’re working to make it attractive in a variety of ways. The upgrades, meantime, include on-site stormwater treatment facilities:

The systems are intended to ensure that all the rain that falls on the dock gets treated before draining into the Duwamish River. Technology is also deployed to speed up truck processing, for the majority of containers handled that way, not just for the ships and shippers, but also to reduce truck waiting, in turn reducing the notorious backups on streets and bridges leading to the terminal. The new complex will have 300 truck-queueing spaces; the next step toward building it is to send it out to bid. Another not-yet-done feature – T-5 currently has 640 plugs for refrigerated containers, and that number will expand to 1,500 by the end of next year. (Refrigeration is important for agriculture, in particular. Among other things, we were told that “we export a lot of wine to South America.”) Speaking of containers, during a previous visit to T-5, we were told of a backup of empties; that is no longer a problem, we learned during this visit.

After the relatively short dock tour, it was off to Salty’s on Alki (WSB sponsor), where key players in the project gathered for a reception.

Speakers were from the Northwest Seaport Alliance managing members (Seattle and Tacoma port commissioners) and administration, SSA, MSC, Seattle City Light (which helped with the shore-power part of the project) and the ILWU. First up was Seattle Port Commission vice president Toshiko Hasegawa:

In addition to various words of praise, speakers recalled T-5’s past, only capable of handling ships far smaller than what’s common today. And again, a look to the future: “The upgrades at T-5 ensure we won’t get left behind.” We recorded all the speeches:

The speakers sounded a confident note on T-5’s future growth, often mentioning their own businesses’ growth (such as MSC growing its fleet from 20 to 820 ships): “The investments we made will pay off – it’s a long-term thing.” As NWSA CEO John Wolfe observed, “This was not an easy project” – so perhaps the next phase, business growth, will be easier in comparison.