A Van Oord and BAM International consortium has been awarded a US$460 million design and construction contract for the first phase of a new container terminal in Moin, Costa Rica by Netherlands based APM Terminals.
The three year contract is for the Terminal de Contenedores de Moin on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, the country’s biggest infrastructure project, and is to start construction early next year. The terminal is a total $1Bn project being built at the Puerto Limon/Moin complex which handles 80% of Costa Rica’s maritime commerce.
APM Terminals was awarded a 33 year concession for design,financing, construction, operation and maintenance of the new terminal by the Costa Rican government in 2011. Extensive investigations and the terminal design have been undertaken by design consultancy CH2M Hill.
Van Oord’s scope of work will include construction of 1.5 kilometres of reinforced shoreline and breakwater protection, reclamation of an offshore area of 40 hectares, and dredging of the access channel and turning basin. Van Oord will deploy a trailing suction hopper dredger, a cutter suction dredger and rock installation equipment. BAM International’s work will include constructing a 650 metre quay, soil improvement, pavement and associated buildings and utilities.
The terminal will play a key role in developing Cost Rica’s fruit exports in particular. Existing port facilities are restricted to ships of 2,500 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) capacity. The new terminal with a depth of 18 metres will be able to handle the latest 12,000 TEU refrigerated vessels that will be using the Panama Canal when its current lock expansion project finishes in 2015.
