Boskalis Wins Second Contract for Singapore's New Port

Boskalis announced Wednesday that it has won a dredging and reclamation contract for the development of Singapore's giant Tuas Terminal Phase II. 

The $370 million government contract covers the deepening of the port basin and access channel, supplying sand for reclamation activity and related civil engineering works. Boskalis will deploy a medium-sized trailing suction hopper dredger, grab and backhoe dredgers and long-distance bulk carriers for the project. Penta Ocean Construction and Hyundai Engineering & Construction hold additional contracts worth a combined $740 million.

Boskalis and Van Oord already hold a $125 million reclamation contract for Tuas Phase I, and the first terminal in this first phase will come online in 2022. Tuas Phase II is expected to take another nine years to build, and activity will begin within weeks. Two additional phases and decades of additional work are planned. 

Tuas will be large enough to accommodate the migration of Singapore's massive port facilities away from the city's prime waterfront area. When complete, it will have a capacity of 65 million TEU, about twice the port's volume in 2016. It is being designed to accommodate as-yet-unbuilt 24,000 TEU container ships, giving it room to grow with the industry. When all of the activity at Singapore's bustling terminals transitions over to to the new port, connectivity between the waterfront and the city-state's industrial areas will improve, according to the Maritime and Port Authority, and over-the-road drayage will not be needed to shift containers between terminals.

The transition will reshape Singapore's waterfront, and the city's planners are already designing future public-friendly features, like a long seafront promenade, mixed-use buildings and parks. The well-known Keppel Club's golf course adjacent to the port will go first, and it is slated to be transformed into housing beginning in 2021. The rest of the port complex will follow in 2040.