Delayed progress of recovery operations at Vanterm

by Leo Ryan Feb 05, 2019

Recovery work is continuing at the GCT Vanterm container facility in the Port of Vancouver where all cargo-handling has ceased since the collapse last Monday of a gantry crane struck by an Evergreen ship, the Ever Summit. “The expectation is that the vessel operations will resume within this week,” GCT spokesperson Louanne Wong said.

Two floating cranes supporting the recovery operations at the damaged terminal at Canada’s largest port by GCT engineering and maintenance teams are in place. They are assisted by external contractors.

“While good progress was made last week aided by favourable weather, this past weekend’s progress was slowed as work had to cease during high winds, and it was also discovered that the crane’s boom structural integrity is more compromised than initially assessed,” Ms. Wong said.

“While we are disappointed that progress was stalled, our primary concern is for the safety of all those working with the terminal and vessel,” she said, adding: “We also continue to support the Transportation Safety Board’s work related to this incident.”

At the three other container terminals in the Port of Vancouver, it’s business as usual.

Leo Ryan

CANADA CORRESPONDENT

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Based in Montreal, the historic biggest Canadian gateway for North Atlantic trade, veteran journalist Leo Ryan has extensive experience as a reporter on national and international shipping, trade, political and economic developments – with strong focus in recent years on Canada-US relations and maritime/multimodal developments on Canada’s East, West and Arctic coasts as well as the binational Great Lakes-St. Lawrence corridor.

While completing a post-graduate degree in Eastern European history amidst the expansion of the Soviet Bloc, he began his career with The Montreal Star as general reporter before moving to Paris where he spent 17 years - first as Africadesk editor for the English service of Agence France Presse. Then, he built a substantial freelance network among English-language newspapers – including The Globe and Mail - as a special foreign correspondent, on a wide variety of reporting assignments in Eastern and Western Europe as well as Africa.

It was during this period, too, that he began writing on European port and economic subjects for New York’s Journal of Commerce. The latter subsequently hired him to establish in Montreal the first full-time JOC bureau in Canada, which remained open for 14 years. A highlight was an exclusive interview in 1988 with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement.

As well Canada Correspondent for AJOT, Leo Ryan is today Editor of Maritime Magazine, a bilingual Canadian quarterly. He is the recipient of the Medal of Merit of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities.