- The $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Sea Port is one of the largest in Nigeria and West Africa and comes with advanced port facilities such as Ship to shore cranes.
The $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Seaport this Sunday welcomed the first vessel and took delivery of 3 Ship to shore cranes and 10 Rubber-Tyred Gantries which are to be used at the container terminal. The cranes which are said to be the most sophisticated port equipment will be used for the first time at the Lekki Port, thus setting a global milestone.
The arrival preceeds President Buhari’s expected inauguration of the deep sea port on Monday (today).
Here are things you shoudl know about the Lekki Deep Sea Port:
Located in the Lagos Free Trade Zone area which is approximately 60km east of Lagos, the Lekki Deep Seaport is a state-of-the-art facility that is the largest seaport and one of the
biggest in West Africa. It is expected to play a major role in the transportation of goods into Nigeria.
The $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Sea Port contains three sections, the container terminal, the liquid terminal and the dry bulk terminal.
The container terminal has an initial draft of 14 metres, and comes with the potential for further dredging to 16.5 metres. The terminal is able to handle 2.5 million twenty-foot standard containers per year.
The deep-sea port of Lekki is the first port in Nigeria with ship-to-shore cranes. There are three of these container gantry cranes and they belong to the ‘Super-post anamax’ group. Essentially what this means is that they can reach and unload the rearmost row of containers even if the container ship is wider than the Panama Canal (49 m or 160ft maximum boat beam).
The STS cranes have a fixed rail at the quayside. They can lift 65 tons in twin-lift mode, 50 tons in single-lift mode or 85 tons under a hook.
The port has a computerised system that allows for container identification and clearance from the office, and this ensures very minimal human interaction in the physical operations. It is expected that when the phase 2 is completed, the deep sea port will have 3 liquid berths.
The liquid cargo terminal will handle vessels up to 45,000 DWT (dead weight tonnage) and
can expand to reach a capacity of 160,000 DWT. Liquids (like petrol or diesel) will be handled at a tank farm near the port.
The docking area is equipped with loading arms. It is also connected by pipelines along
the breakwater.
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