美东港口忙加深

The U.S. East and Gulf coasts deepening harbors and channels

美国东海岸与墨西哥湾沿岸的港口都在为巴拿马运河大型新船闸的启用这一重大事件做着精心准备。在过去8年多时间里,从波士顿到布朗斯维尔,美国东海岸与墨西哥湾沿岸的港口一直在加深港口和航道,修建装备超巴拿马型起重机的新码头,建造新的铁路线和码头并规划新的公路。在比原定计划延迟两年多后,巴拿马运河新船闸终于在今年6月开始启用,但是这可能会有些虎头蛇尾。

From Boston to Brownsville, ports on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts have spent the last eight years or more prepping for one seminal event, the opening of the Panama Canal's big new set of locks. Ports have been deepening their harbors and channels, building new terminals with post-Panamax cranes, constructing new rail lines and terminals and planning new highways. But when the new locks finally open this June, more than two years behind the original schedule, the event may prove anticlimactic. Post-Panamax container ships thatthe new locks were built to handle have been calling East Coast ports for the last three years from Asia via the Suez Canal. The ships on the Suez route began arriving at East Coast ports well before many of them had completed deepening their harbors, so they could only call some ports twice a day at high tide or after they had already unloaded enough cargo to lighten their draft at ports with deeper channels before calling ports with shallower drafts.Three East Coast ports already have 50-foot channels, which enables them to handle postPanamax ships without tidal restrictions. Others are at various stages in their deepening projects.