The Project
Located at Marsden Point near Whangārei, Northport’s deep-water commercial port is the northernmost port in New Zealand, boasting three multipurpose berths. Since opening up to accept dedicated container ships in 2018, the largest and easternmost berth, MP3, has seen an increase in container ship size and very large container ships will take up two available berths when visiting.
Technical Solutions
Northport risk assessments indicated that larger container ships from 250m to 300m in length are vulnerable to offshore winds whilst berthed and would overhang the berth significantly. Northport therefore sought a mooring analysis from WGA to investigate line tensions, bollard loads, and vessel movement whilst a large container ship is overhung at MP3.
Client Focus
The outcomes from the detailed mooring analyses were to provide limiting wind conditions that could be adopted to allow use of the berth for larger design vessels without major infrastructure upgrades.
WGA also advised on modified mooring arrangements and berth layout upgrades that could allow further increases in allowable wind speed.