Terminal 5 in Seattle has long been considered a premier container cargo on the West Coast because of its naturally deep berth, wide footprint, and the availability of an on-dock rail yard, which allows containers to be directly loaded from the ship onto rail lines. The new ultra-large container ships, however, require larger, heavier cranes with a longer reach, which in turn requires strengthening the dock and upgrading utilities.
“We’re experiencing a lot of congestion on the West Coast. Terminal 5 is going to help ease some of that congestion.” The Port of Seattle’s brand new Terminal 5 already has major container ships coming in. The terminal is an outlet for ships stuck off of other west coast ports. The new Terminal 5 includes the biggest cranes on the West Coast. It’s capable of unloading the biggest ships. “In the Port of Seattle, it’ll probably increase our total capacity by about 40%. So, yeah. It’s enormous,” says Port Commission President Ryan Calkins.
At The Northwest Seaport Alliance’s Managing Member meeting on Feb. 5, 2019, the port commissions of Seattle and Tacoma discussed staff recommendations for significant new investments to grow international marine cargo in the Seattle Harbor, including a new tenant at Terminal 5 and more than $300 million in infrastructure improvements to the facility. With a modernized T-5, the NWSA’s containerized cargo is estimated to reach nearly 7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually in 2050, according to a recent economic analysis.
“This terminal brings much-needed capacity online to help mitigate the issues we’ve been having with the current supply chain congestion,” said Northwest Seaport Alliance Director of Business Development Steve Balaski. Terminal 5 means more money. Calkins said the port can make jobs on the docks and in transportation more attractive. “It’s a part of an ecosystem that provides 58,000 jobs in our region and $12 billion in economic impact,” Calkins said.
In June 2021, SSA Terminals and the NWSA welcomed the largest cranes in the world to the Seattle Harbor. Four Super Post-Panamax cranes were delivered by the Zhen Hua 36. Each crane stands 316 feet tall with a 240-foot outreach boom.
Terminal 5 is half open now, and will be fully open in two years. People on the shores of Puget Sound may have noticed a decline in the number of cargo ships idling while they wait for a berth to unload at the port. At one point last year, as many as 12 were lined up. At time of publication, that number was down to three. Seattle’s port unloads over a million containers annually. The number’s three million, when combined with the Port of Tacoma. Phase One of Terminal 5 is complete and the north berth at Terminal 5 is open for cargo ships. On January 7th, the MSC Monterey was the first vessel to call the newly modernized Terminal.
