Liverpool2 is a

container terminal A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...

extension adjoining the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed par ...

in Seaforth,

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wir ...

. The extension, built by

Peel Ports The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes in its former ports ...

, officially opened on 4 November 2016 and is an expansion of the Seaforth Dock container terminal.

Development

The groundbreaking ceremony was held on 6 June 2013, with

Sir Bobby Charlton Sir Robert Charlton (born 11 October 1937) is an English former footballer who played either as a midfielder or a forward. Considered one of the greatest players of all time, he was a member of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World C ...

and

Sir Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former football player and manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic and 515 for Liverpool, playing as a forward, and earned a record 102 full caps for the ...

present at the event. The emplacement of steel pilings commenced from October 2013 utilising 329 piles, weighing 47 tonnes each. In total, 19,000 tonnes of metalwork was used to form a -high, and -long, quay wall. By July 2014, dredging of a area of the

approach channel had been commenced by

Van Oord Royal Van Oord is a Dutch maritime contracting company that specializes in dredging, land reclamation and constructing man made islands. Royal Van Oord has undertaken many projects throughout the world, including land reclamation, dredging and beac ...

. The extension was built on

reclaimed land Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

using the material dredged from the River Mersey, with the deepened approach channel providing the necessary clearance for visiting ships. Construction was delayed by 60 days during winter storms in 2014. 5.5m tonnes of material was dredged, involving a workforce of 440 specialists. The first five

ZPMC Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company Limited (, ) is a Chinese state-owned multinational engineering company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of cranes and large steel structures. History The company was founded in 1992. It is ...

-built Megamax ship-to-shore cranes were all on the quayside by November 2015, having been delivered from

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

, with eight of these cranes ultimately planned for the site. The first five cranes were delivered by the ship . The intended opening date of December 2015 was missed, being moved to the summer of 2016, and ultimately rescheduled for the autumn. A first batch of six ZPMC-built cantilever rail-mounted

gantry crane A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, us ...

s were delivered to the site in May 2016, arriving from

Nantong Nantong (; alternate names: Nan-t'ung, Nantung, Tongzhou, or Tungchow; Qihai dialect: ) is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. Nantong is a vit ...

aboard the ship ''Zhen Hua 25''. Berthing trials began in June 2016, with MSC vessels participating in the procedures throughout the following months. A further six gantry cranes were added in October 2016; these being delivered by the ship ''Zhen Hua 8'', also from Nantong. The extension was built at a cost of £400m and ultimately opened on 4 November 2016 by Liam Fox, the

Secretary of State for International Trade The secretary of state for international trade, also referred to as the international trade secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Department for Interna ...

Phase two

Phase two of the development included three more ship-to-shore (STS) cranes and an additional ten gantry cranes. After being completed, the site is served by 8 Megamax cranes and 22 cantilever rail-mounted gantry (CRMG) cranes. This allows a capacity of 1m TEU per year for the site. Peel Ports announced in July 2017 that it was proceeding with the expansion and that planning work had started to bring the remaining three Megamax and ten CRMG cranes to the port. The work also involved the installation of additional reefer points to allow the port to handle a greater quantity of refrigerated containers. Peel announced in September 2019 that the new STS cranes were expected to arrive in November 2019 with all of the work being completed in summer 2021. An upgrade to the

Canada Dock Branch The Canada Dock Branch is a 4-mile 59 chain (7.62 kilometre) long railway line in Liverpool, England. The line's route is from the large Edge Hill rail junction in the east of Liverpool to Seaforth Dock to the north. The line was originally ...

rail line was announced in May 2016 that would allow up to 48 trains a day to visit the port. Upgrade of the line was expected to be complete by 2019.

Operation

Liverpool2 Container Terminal - August 2021

The terminal extension is able to accommodate two 13,500 TEU New-Panamax vessels simultaneously, the maximum size that can transit the Panama Canal. As of 2016, the site is served by five Megamax cranes and twelve cantilever rail-mounted gantry cranes, completing phase one of the development. The gantry cranes are remotely operated from a control room at the terminal. The terminal has also gained the most advanced quayside to HGV automated transfer technology in Europe. In March 2020, the terminal received its single biggest delivery to date, unloading 5,452 TEUs from ''MSC Federica''; a record which was improved upon in December 2020, with a delivery of 5,956 TEUs by ''MSC Tamara''. In October 2020,

OOCL Orient Overseas Container Line, commonly known as OOCL, is a container shipping and logistics service company with headquarters in Hong Kong. The company is incorporated in Hong Kong as Orient Overseas Container Line Limited and separately in ...

made Liverpool2 one of the permanent calling points for its trade between Europe and Canada. Two months later, Maersk and MSC chose to change from using the

Port of Felixstowe The Port of Felixstowe, in Felixstowe, Suffolk, is the United Kingdom's busiest container port, dealing with 48% of Britain's containerised trade. In 2017, it was ranked as 43rd busiest container port in the world and 8th in Europe, with a ha ...

for their TA2 transatlantic shipping service, in favour of Liverpool2. Around the same time, MSC launched a partnership with

GB Railfreight GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is owned by the global investment company Infracapital. GB Railfreight was established in April 1999 as the rail freight operating subsidiary of the train o ...

to operate a five-days-a-week rail service between Liverpool2 and the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, L ...

Future

Consideration has also been given for improved road access to the terminal, from the

M57 motorway The M57 motorway, also known as the Liverpool Outer Ring Road, is a road in England. Designed as a Ring road for Liverpool, it is long between Tarbock Green and Switch lsland, and links various towns east of the city, as well as the M62 and ...

junction at

Switch Island Switch Island is a major road junction near Aintree in Merseyside, England, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton. The junction is at the western terminus of both the M57 and M58 motorways, which converge on the A59 trunk road, the north- ...

, in order to ease the expected HGV congestion.

References

External links