New Richmond container storage facility strengthens Canada’s supply chains

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority announced February 25 that a temporary storage site for empty shipping containers has been set up in Richmond to strengthen local and national supply chains.

In mid-November, 2021, severe flooding in B.C. completely cut off rail service connecting the Port of Vancouver to national supply chains for eight days, exacerbating global supply-chain challenges that have been affecting Canadians throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Container storage sites are vital to support the movement and distribution of cargo to and from the port, and to reduce congestion at container yards, yet the land-constrained Lower Mainland lacks sufficient industrial land for such critical supply-chain functions.

On November 24, 2021, the federal government announced it would contribute $4.1 million under the National Trade Corridors Fund toward a port authority-led project to prepare an undeveloped parcel of federal port land for the handling and storage of empty containers, and the port authority immediately began preparing a formerly undeveloped project site to be a temporary container storage site.

As part of this process, and in line with the port authority’s commitment to work with the Musqueam Indian Band through a relationship agreement, the nation led archaeological monitoring of the site preparations.  

The site, which is located on Portside Road at the end of No.8 Road in Richmond, has been prepared in three phases, with the first phase operational in January. The port authority continues to advance construction on the site and expects to see the full site completed by early March.

The port authority welcomed Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra to tour the site yesterday.

The port authority selected Coast2000 Terminals (a Western IntermodeX Enterprise) and Euro Asia, two integrated intermodal service companies and current port tenants within the Fraser Richmond Industrial Lands, to operate the temporary site.  

Upon completion, the storage area will remain operational until July 2022. The site is part of federal port lands and is intended to be used for terminal development in the future.