Contractors finished land reclamation for phase one of Singapore’s giant new Tuas Port on Tuesday.
A joint venture of Dredging International Asia Pacific and Daelim Industrial (DDJV) created 294 hectares of new land, equivalent to 412 football fields, to accommodate 21 deep-water berths for phase one, which will be able to handle 20 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year.
That launches phase one of Tuas Port straight into the top 10 ports in the world by handling capacity. When all four phases are complete in the 2040s, Tuas Port will be able to handle 65 million TEUs a year, more than any port operating today. The completed port’s cost is reported to be more than S$20bn ($15.6bn).
DDJV has worked since March 2015 on the project, which involved fabricating and installing 221 ten-storey-high caissons, each weighing 15,000 tons, to form 8.6km of seawall, and dredging channels for the world’s biggest ships.
Some 450 companies worked on phase one, putting in 34 million person hours.
Singapore’s port operator PSA plans to start using the first two berths by the end of this year.
The investment is intended to protect the country’s status as a top global transhipment hub.
At the opening ceremony, transport minister Mr S. Iswaran called it “a significant milestone, demonstrating our resilience amidst adversity, and affirming Singapore’s status as a reliable global hub port trusted by partners”.
“It also signals Singapore’s readiness for the future,” he added.
Reclamation works for phase two are underway; planning for phase three has begun.
