Site Port authority CEO tours 'derelict' docks along Saint John's west side

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Reid Southwick
Telegraph-Journal

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SAINT JOHN - Crumbling concrete exposes wooden pilings that once supported one of the port's west-side piers. Further inland, the pier has nearly collapsed into the water, an unsightly artifact of an earlier time.

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Reid Southwick/Telegraph-Journal.

A major infrastructure project necessary for a new terminal at the west-side docks would cost an estimated $150 million, maybe more, says Captain Al Soppit, CEO of the Sant John Port Authority.

In their heyday, Pier 13 and the adjacent Pier 14 received agricultural products and other commodities, but that was decades ago. Back then, port officials decided the sizes and positions of the piers no longer fit into the strategic direction of port business.

The piers, built in the early 20th century, are now beyond repair. But within the next 10 to 15 years, as the port continues to expand under growing demand, they may become the site of a new terminal, says Captain Al Soppit, chief executive officer of the Saint John Port Authority. Land could stretch over the body of water connecting these crumbling structures to the west-side working port, creating a new lucrative source of revenue.

"In my time as assistant harbour master, the pier was used for potatoes, but as you can see, it's derelict now," says Soppit, while standing aboard the Harbour Queen work boat during a tour of the west-side docks.

"If we could fill this area in," he continues, pointing toward the potential new terminal site, "we could really increase the capability of the lower west side. It could be another bulk terminal, or allow for expansion of the container terminal. Or we could move scrap metal down here."

The west-side docks currently account for about 44 per cent of total revenues generated by cargo moving through the port's own facilities. Roughly one million tonnes of forest products, fish meal, molasses, tapioca, scrap metal and other materials will move through these docks this year.

The major infrastructure project necessary for a new terminal would cost an estimated $150 million, maybe more, Soppit says. Upgrades along the operational piers on the west side have a much higher priority, he says, but if a company presented a business case, the terminal could be up and running within just five years.

"It would give us much more flexibility for maintaining our diversity and looking at other types of cargo," Soppit says.

The piers currently used for bulk and general cargo approach the top of the port's priorities for infrastructure upgrades. A complete overhaul would set the port back an estimated $100 million, though a proposed real estate deal with Irving Oil would allow the port to stash about $10 million into an infrastructure fund, which could be matched against government and private funds.

A potential new terminal, meanwhile, remains on the backburner, but could one day usher in a new era for a section of the port so for gotten for decades.