Lyttelton Port of Christchurch Closed After Earthquake

The Lyttelton Port of Christchurch is closed after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake stuck Tuesday, causing further damage to the port and its facilities.

Acccording to a statement released by the port, no workers were injured during the earthquake.

Engineers are currently conducting structural checks of port and its facilities.

The port has released the following update on the condition of its operations:

OIL BERTH OPERATIONS

The berth has held up well. Next stage is to confirm that the pipework is fully serviceable. Based on that we expect to be operational in 48 hours. We have a tanker scheduled for fuel discharge on Saturday 26 February 2011.

CONTAINER OPERATIONS

An assessment of container assets is that wharves have held up well, but there are urgent minor works to be done. We are aiming to have limited operations available within 3-4 days. Our current best estimate to get back to our previous operation service levels prior to the 6.3 quake is in 10 days. We will give daily updates to directly effected customers.

We regret to advise that receival and delivery is currently suspended but expect to be operational within 24 hours. We will notify customers as soon as possible.

GENERAL CARGO OPERATIONS

General cargo assets are being assessed on Thursday 24 February. We will update you further.

CITYDEPOT OPERATIONS

In the morning we intend to correct any misaligned containers at our CityDepot site and intend to be operational in the afternoon.

The port is receiving assistance from the Royal NZ Navy and has a number of divers present to assit engineers in their structure checks.