The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority has approved a controversial plan by Seaspan to expand its drydock facilities on the North Vancouver waterfront.
The decision on the drydock expansion, issued October 3, will allow Seaspan to expand its existing facilities at the foot of St. George’s Avenue to the west, towards Burrard Pier, including adding two additional drydocks and a work pontoon.
Nearby residents who had opposed the plan said they were disappointed in the decision.The company has said the drydock expansion is needed to consolidate all of its ship repair work at the Vancouver Drydock site, while Seaspan Shipyards at the foot of Pemberton Avenue becomes fully dedicated to building large ships like the joint support ships for the Canadian Navy and icebreaker for the Coast Guard.
Seaspan has said the expansion will expand drydock capacity by about 30 per cent and result in approximately 100 new jobs on top of the 150 people already working at Vancouver Drydock.
But the project has also generated significant controversy since Seaspan first applied for the expansion permit more than two years ago.
Lower Lonsdale residents who live in several high-rise condominium towers on the North Vancouver waterfront have repeatedly voiced concerns about the negative impact of additional noise and light from the expanded drydock operations, as well as an impact on views.
Seaspan has promised to use “dark-sky-friendly” lighting and to put up lighting shields for lights facing residential towers. The company has said it will also advise the community if high-noise-generating work is taking place outside of regular working hours and promised to measure noise both during and after construction.
Throughout the application process, the company maintained that building new drydocks further to the east isn’t feasible because Seaspan needs space for barges to move in front of its on-shore “W” building, as well as direct access to the dry docks via a service pier.
In a letter approving the project, Andrea McLeod, project and environmental review director at the port, said the company had demonstrated the expansion couldn’t be built further east “due to project operational and economic constraints.”
In the letter, McLeod acknowledged there had been “strong public opposition to the project” and concerns voiced by both Linda Buchanan, the mayor of the City of North Vancouver, as well as MP Jonathan Wilkinson.
“We did not take this decision lightly,” she added.
McLeod said public feedback has resulted in mitigation measures intended to reduce noise and light impacts. Seaspan will also apply several of those mitigation measures to its existing drydock operations, she said.
In the original application, Paul Hebson, vice-president and general manager of Seaspan’s Vancouver Drydock, said the expansion is needed to consolidate the company’s ship repair work at the Vancouver Drydock site.
In the past, both shipbuilding and repairs could be handled at the Pemberton site, but the space required for shipbuilding at the Pemberton site has rapidly expanded, said Hebson.
“We’re actually at the point where we're just completing the last repair that we've got physical capacity to do that at the Pemberton site,” he said.
“For the past three to five years we've been operating absolutely at full capacity and we've been fairly regularly turning work away.”
