Case for new cargo port argues in favour of Breakers
(CNS): The starting point for the tourism ministry’s plans for either redeveloping or moving the cargo port facility, detailed in the Strategic Outline Case, has singled out the quarries at Breakers as the best potential location for a replacement, which is likely to prove extremely controversial. The document was written by Joseph Woods, who is now retired but was acting port director at the time it was written.
Woods, the manager of Cruise Operations and Security (PFSO) with the Port Authority of the Cayman Islands (PACI) for 18.5 years, has been arguing since 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Ivan, that the current facility in George Town is over-stretched and reaching capacity. The SOC, dated February 2022 and undertaken during 2021, indicates that the current cargo facility will run out of space in ten years when the population reaches 100,000.
However, the latest figures from various government agencies suggest that the Cayman Islands will reach that number in less than two years, calling into question whether the existing facility really is as stretched as the strategic case argues.
The Health Insurance Commission has confirmed almost 74,600 people currently have valid health insurance, a clear indication the population is now well in excess of 80,000, given the estimate that around 90% of residents have some form of health insurance.
That figure is supported by the results of the Spring 2022 Labour Force Survey, which indicated that the population was already at 78,554 back in April 2022. Since then, WORC has revealed there were around 34,000 permit holders, the highest in the country’s history, by the end of January.
Neither an expansion of the existing facility nor the construction of an entirely new dock could be completed in under a decade, and if the government chooses either of these options they would face a number of major challenges, including massive costs that could not be financed from port revenue. Both options would also pose significant environmental problems that would likely meet with fierce objections.
“No matter where any port is situated in the Cayman Islands, there are political and environmental considerations and hurdles to be overcome,” Woods states in the report.
Out of the five alternative locations listed in this strategic case, he dismissed the proposal for Red Bay, the North Sound, East End Sound and Frank Sound because of their vulnerabilities to storms, surrounding development, various other limitations and significant environmental impacts. But despite the many issues relating to Breakers, Woods argued clearly in favour of this site.
“The quarries at Breakers offer an excellent basin for a sheltered, deep water port,” he wrote. “The excavated sites are already 50ft draft and once completed, would serve no other useful purpose for the islands. To use them for a port would only require them to be connected together and then to the sea. There are no Marine Reserves or Marine Parks where the channel would need to go. There is an abundance of undeveloped land surrounding those quarries and this would meet the objective to have space to expand the Port as needed.”
Woods argued that the site could provide a home-porting facility for non-USA cruises to originate from, given the size of the site. He said there could be a phased approach for the development that could include a transshipment and free-zone for trade, and even joining up to the quarries in Midland Acres to form a super yacht marina.
“Constructed in phases, this project would provide a dependable source of employment for a sizeable labour force for generations to come,” he said, adding that if a decision is taken to develop a new port elsewhere, it should be developed for the longer term of 50 to 100 years in mind.
The case also looks at expanding the current facility in George Town which will require lengthening the pier and deepening the water around the pier to an even 25 feet as well as reclaiming some more of the sea to fill and convert it to land for dock storage. Woods also notes that if the George Town facility is enhanced to meet Cayman’s needs for up to twenty years there is no room to expand.
“The longer term solution still has to be considered and addressed, so identifying a site for a future port has to begin now and planning has to commence for its development,” he added.
Tourism and Transport Minister Kenneth Bryan said that following Cabinet’s approval of this strategic case, the next step is to recruit a project manager before engaging consultants to do the business case.
“Once the project manager is recruited, the next steps in the process will be for the Request for Proposals to be issued, seeking the financial consultants to draft the Outline Business Case. As is customary, the Strategic Outline Case will be included when the project goes out to tender. In addition, once the consultants have been identified to draft the Outline Business Case, a public consultation process will also take place at that time,” he said.
See the full Strategic Outline Case in the CNS Library.
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Category: development, Local News
And how do you transport scores of 40 foot containers into George Town or wherever is their destination. With the current disastrous traffic problems can you imagine adding convoys of tractor trailer units on the road from Breakers, – especially traveling West – crazy.
@6:58 common sense not so common anymore. Can’t make this up. I suppose they will say at 4am in the morning – when all the dunk drivers are coming home from night clubs.
My thought exactly, but then this is Cayman!
Needs to move out of George Town, we all agree with that, cruise ships and cargo ships on the gt waterfront are an eye sore and should never be in that confined location. But,d a cruise port out east.
About 200 miles East should do it.
Is it a coincidence that there’s an issue going on at the port tonight?
Would it be possible to obtain a few more barges like the ones used to carry cargo to Cayman Brac and when or if there are larger cargo vessels coming here, in which I think the larger vessels are equipped with a crane onboard to offload containers, just offload to the barges while the smaller existing cargo vessels are utilizing the cargo dock, after the smaller existing that are used now are finished offloading then the barges can be docked and offloaded also, no dredging or construction required, just a thought because some of those barges can hold quite a lot of containers
Who stopping you?
I’m surprised everywhere else in the world with good governance are doing the opposite this government is doing. The world wants to protect the environment our ministers want to bulldoze every tree and every animal habitat until nothing is left for tomorrow’s generation. I hope the prince learns of Kenny’s plans and put a stop to this madness – both the extension of the bypass and this hole in the middle of the island.
Arden where you de? I remember when imparato wanted the marina in East End you shot it down. Why is this one you quiet?
and the prince cares because?
The revenue from Kenny Beach will pay for this no problem.
More smoke and mirrors here.
McBeater at work again!
Put the dock in Camana Bay! Everything else is going there.
Is there not vacant land behind CUC? bring in cargo via the sound and isolate that mess to the industrial park.
Far too sensible! Over half of the North Sound is already dredged – it would be pretty easy to connect it all up. But no, let’s put it at the other end of the island and exacerbate the traffic problems!
No matter where they place a new port, 3 cruise ships per day is putting enormous strain on our lackluster roads, especially on Fridays.
Maybe it was fine with 20k less residents and thousands of fewer cars.
Limit ships to 2, have none on weekends and holidays.
Begin widespread remote work, stagger work times. This can be done quickly and at minimal costs until the roundabouts and choke points are improved.
What is the max population that CIG is aiming for?
One million people.
Asking CIG?
Wrong entity
Ask Dart, Imperato Shilling, Naul Bodden, Charlie Kirkconnell, etc. they are part of the controller gang.
GIG has no vision or authority, they just follow orders.
Not sure NB is still as powerful as before. Island Growth funds were a bad look.
Nax population…? For Mac Saunders Seymour and Kenny, as many Jamaicans as we can cram in.
Our lonesome cargo berth sits vacant most days. Add another ship, of the same size and draft, to the weekly schedule if there is consumer demand. That’s what prudent managers would do. The case should be that full time salaried Port staff are expected to work at least 4-5 days a week, like everyone else. Shipping companies should not be dictating terms to us on what will work better for their shareholders. And the FCCA behind nonsense this can go suck an egg.
Just use spots dock?
That’s a hard no.
Next.
Kenny cracks me up.
If politicians really understood that we can’t continue a linear economy and gave a toss about the environment, climate change and safeguarding people, food and fish populations, they would lower the East-West corridor through the quarried areas out of the way of the central mangrove wetlands and focus on regenerating the area with a planned community and industry rather than digging more holes, destroying our natural assets and encouraging fossil fuel emissions.
Someone took the Chinese money and made a promise they need to keep.
Has this man ever been to sea, let alone captained a vessel. Idiot.
OK, Idiot! Been to sea does not make a Minister of Tourism, it assists to be be a seafarer. Captaining a vessel does not make a Minister of Tourism, it assists you to steer a boat! I am NOT a fan of those mentioned above, but your statements makes no sense and indicates a supreme lack of understanding of what would qualify one to handle the matters at hand. A typical uneducated Caymanian response, and I sense one that would elect uneducated Ministers because they may have… gone fishing! And we wonder why we have such unqualified Ministers… Gone to sea, Captained a vessel – pure third world, God help us!
Rackley”s is the only place that makes sense.
Will the lost revenue from Kenny’s cruise ships be less than the cost to build this? I think that is the answer….
Also- if it took 1 year to to put some paving stones down in cardinal avenue, can you imagine how long this will take to build?
Next we will hear that Joey Wood has a Port / Project Management Consultancy Company!? Joey is trained as a Police Officer, then transferred to the Port as Head of Security. He only acted as Port Director as we have not been able to find anyone with the requisite qualifications to take up the post. Joey is not that person – some of us went to school with him and while he has done quite well for himself and worked a fairly long career, he is NOT qualified as a scientist or Port / Ecological Design expert!
Not many “port scientist” in Cayman…but Joey proved to be the most hard working competent port Director and manager we have ever had.
His problem was that he was honest and made staff obey working hours, standards, and strictly observed sick leave and vacation rules.
Staff didn’t like that , and as soon as Kenny was minister they ran crying to him and
Two board members with political ambitions ganged up on Joey , so he resigned.
Our loss.
Joey proved to be the most hard working competent port Director and manager we have ever had.
You have to admit the bar wasn’t that high at the time Joey took over.
I’m sorry, but monitoring work hours, standards, sick leaves and vacation hours are a secretaries job. Necessary sure, but not the head of the port! He needed to be mindful of much more technical matters which was not done. His job was not to be a bookkeeper, but to manage a port for an entire territory!
12.27 with respect you have no idea what it takes to run the port .
HR alone is a nightmare of daily dealings with no shows, sick leave, night workers sleeping or allegedly off site doing private trucking work, vacation demands, and general shoulder shrugging indolence because of family or political connections.
It all ends up on the Port Director’s desk to deal with,
If you have a secretary who can deal with all that, let me know.
If everything you noted is solely the responsibility of the port Director to monitor, record, and deal with and not delegate to appropriate personnel; you have greater problems.
https://caymannewsservice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Joseph-Woods-certificate.jpg
thank you
Won’t the drudging at Breakers to create this port severely impact Stingray City water or is it too far away. If it does impact Stingray City then you’re really plucking the golden goose of Cayman tourism
Sheesh, look at a figging map.
LOL, you should be more concerned about rainwater runoff from the dump going into North Sound.
Do you live here? wTF?
Breakers is not the same as Barkers which is a part of the North Sound. Breakers is on the South East side of the island.
Ha! It’s almost as if they thought,
Let’s tell the country something truly horrific they’ll
Make the cruise port deal seem like the best idea!
So the grand plan in the background is to take the Chinese money on offer, which is ultimately sourced from the CCP, to build and expand the port at all costs. We all know the very small group of people on island who would personally profit from this. The Chinese are clever enough to know that greedy fools will leave their principles at the door and take the money every time. Just thinking ahead, if this were to happen, and Chinese influence in the Cayman Islands was to go grow exponentially, how long do you think it might take for American and European financial and legal entities to leave for a more secure locations given the trajectory of current geopolitics ? Then I wonder who the CIG would be asking for loans to prop up the government…
All that would make for a good fiction novel – pure conspiracy nonsense. I’m strongly against the port expansion, but garbage like this is not helpful. Too many Caymanian electorate believe lies – hence the repeated clowns that get elected that have no business in gov’t.
CNS: China’s massive investments in the Caribbean for politically strategic reasons are well documented – see here. China Harbour, McKeeva’s choice to build the cruise port (see here) is owned by the Chinese government. See also Bangladesh has blacklisted China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) ltd. for offering bribes to Government officials and would not get any contracts in the future.
I’m not commenting on whether or not any concerns in the comment have merit and as far as I know there have been no whispers about any Chinese companies being interested in this project, but they would be open to bid on it and could win. You could also spend a little time googling how the Chinese and local workers are treated on these Chinese projects and the disregard for the environment.
I don’t care what the project is, any involvement with China should be a very hard no. The CCP are now openly aligned militarily with Russia and Iran. We shouldn’t even be importing their garbage cars let alone considering them for infrastructure debt.
The Chinese screwed over the Bahamian government and investors in stealing the BahaMar project, helped by a “consultant ‘ living in Cayman.
Same man trying to get in on the act when CHEC was seducing the UDP government.
who dat?
3.14. Ask your friends in the construction industry.
If rapid rates of growth are leading to obvious critical infrastructure shortages and eroding our quality of life and if the majority of the population has significant reservations around the speed of growth why are we doing it?
Simple. Corruption.
🟢Protect our environment
🟠Halt overexpansion
🔴Stop duplicity
#VoteNO
No weed. No wote.
Disgusted and angry but far from surprised, as most of us knew this was coming from PPM days. What gets me is the audacity of it all. Corrupt underhand deals and ulterior motives rife up in here. Opportunity exists as usual only for a select crew and to hell with the people. They take us for such idiots.
Need these people gone and fresh blood in before they devastate the entire island. Twin towers on SMB next.
You been up to public beach recently. 4 towers dwarfing everything around.
Stop cruises. Those tourists don’t add any value. Use the capacity freed by the lack of cruise ships to enable greater efficiency in the cargo port.
Further and additionally, clamp down on low value ‘expats’ on the minimum wage, who don’t add any $$$$ to the economy, but who do massively increase both congestion and the number of ancient, dangerous and badly-driven cars on the road. Their absence will reduce the need for unending growth in cargo capacity.
Finally, get the new Governor to commission an entirely-independent review of Cayman’s future, staffed by technocratic experts from overseas who have no skin in the game, and who thus will not be tempted to buy votes through thinly-veiled corruption and self-dealing.
Or spiral ever closer to collapse.
“clamp down on low value ‘expats’ on the minimum wage, who don’t add any $$$$ to the economy”
It’s pretty obvious you have very little idea how an economy works. Good luck running a hotel without people to clean the rooms, a restaurant with no one to wash the dishes, swimming pools without people to clean them, cutting lawns, construction labour, checkouts in shops, food deliveries, the list is endless.. SMH
What is there now for cruise ship passengers? Cruise ship passengers don’t add value, but what is there for them to do or go?
Swim near the fish market, overpay for mediocre food and drinks, ride in a bus that speeds and clogs up traffic, take Public Beach over, see all the roadside trash and take a trip to Hell and admire some pointy rocks, as well as see more trash, marvel at Mount Transhmore.
Well folks the plan is coming into focus. Anyone care to guess who will own the new port? Tons of money to be made. Population will be well over 100,000 and nothing significant done about the traffic problem. More time to complain on the talk shows while waiting in traffic.
Yep, this is also the foot in the door argument for the EWA. Serving private interests all round here, it’s not being done for the good of the island.
Salt water in the quarries will go straight into the freshwater lens. Face it, there’s no good port location in Cayman. Learn to live with it.
Huh?
The article well illustrates why Cayman is in the position it currently finds itself in.
We have a cargo port that will not cater to the near term needs, but instead of just focusing on that , our former port director focuses on “ Ideas “ to bolster a decision .
“ Cargo Transhipment Terminal “ for one, when Jamaica next door has the Caribbeans largest transhipment cargo terminal in Kingston. “Super Yacht Marinas”.
Get a life sized picture of the well heeled owners and guests on board yachts that are used to visiting proper destinations in this category , actually choosing to berth here for all our “Attractions”. Traffic will be the main one.
“Cruise Ship Home Port”. Average passenger numbers on the new ships top 5,000. Are we going to fly them in , 5000 at a time and then fly them out after the cruise?
Finally , the “Storm Protection”. YouTube can provide videos on what happens to an enclosed Harbour in a major storm. A high end category 5 storm here would deliver a storm surge in excess of 12 to 15 feet, with perhaps +50 foot waves on top of that , on our south-east coastline region. Building a dug out inland port, would need both coastal and hydrological mitigation measures in order to protect the investment in a worse case scenario. These are just ideas.
Maybe Kenny should have hired you instead of listening to the PPM puppet!
Is Mac influencing this?
What’s scary is that a place like Red Bay even made it onto the list for consideration. WTF were they thinking!?
Makes sense at Red Bay. They could install the 5 deck freeway and monorail over the Hurley’s junction and dig down for a Metro on the bottom to alleviate the morning rush hour to the KPMG & Delloite Headquarters.
Next step, figure out how much money that will cost
Sadly, Breakers does make sense in the spirit of the “Best of poor options.”
You do realise, setting aside for a minute all other reasons why the Breakers location is a terrible idea, that for most of the winter and more, Breakers is white water and waves? Hence the name?! How is it a good idea to build a port in a location so exposed to wind and waves??
“Best of poor options.” No construction would be the best, but as stated, this is the “best of poor options.”
Ever heard of locks and breakwaters. Too many armchair experts, stay in your lane.
Everything that can possibly put Cayman in a better position strategically, will face objections from someone.
The quarries are the best place to out the port.
So if I move to Breakers as the new Port is completed, will that mean my food requirements are both more available & cheaper ? – this is all about feeding the people isn’t it ? – Kenny ? 🐟🍞
This is all about feeding more large scale development, not the people unless you want to put more aggregate and fuel in your diet.
Think about it, the new port will be deeper, much deeper and be able to handle Max or even Cape size vessels. This would also tie in with certain individuals aspirations to develop a bulk fuel terminal including LNG in the Eastern Districts.
Lots of big players including Dart lobbying Kenny. Not his idea, he’s just another pawn.
Until the GT port is truly operating 24 hours a day it is not at capacity.
A massive facility in Breakers just doesn’t make sense unless there are other reasons at play…
It’s zoned for duty free and also staging for other regions.
Fuel terminals and home gas will be relocated as well.
Bypass down the middle has been zone for utilities all the way into town.
This project is not small by no means.
This is all driven by population growth to 100,000 and beyond. We have already grown from 20,000 in the early 1980. What is the optimum size to maintain the dedired quality of life. Endless growth is not an option.
Think we were OK about 20,000 people ago
The quarries of reference are fairly close to underground fresh-water lenses. Also nearby are some of our largest brackish water lakes (ponds)…Meagre Bay Pond for example. I’m no scientist of any sort, but surely there could and probably would be some impact to those wetlands and water lenses from :
a. dredging the quarries to turn them into a vessel port;
b. the activity of vessels and operations and the resulting pollutants from the basins and possibly from surface activities.
I dunno, but creating a port from inland quarries near fragile wetlands sound a bit “out-there” to me!!
But it wouldn’t shock me if they grab onto it and run!
what about all the traffic hauling all the goods from Breakers to GT ?
The 1.5 hour each way commute will now be 2 hours each way.
Thats a great idea as the quarries are useless when there finished dug out.
They make great sites for solar.
And paddleboats
Sounds like a good idea to me. making land with excavations and using the excavation for national commercial docking, safe from hurricanes, and expandable. love it! So the removal of the east to make land in the west may serve a dual purpose after all.
Follow the land ownership. Doesn’t a close relative of Joey Wood own one of the largest quarries in that area?
I’ve worked closely with Joey when we were both in the sewers and I always found him principled. Perhaps he should have had someone else push this position.
Perception can be reality to viewers.
You don’t know Joey, he is one man that I can tell you would never be involved in underhand dealings.
So, traffic is a major problem. Let’s move the port farther from the main populace and commercial areas so that every imported item has to be big-rig trucked further (more costs), along the same roads with all the big aggregate trucks and other traffic!
How will EWA help with large-load traffic traversing between GT and Breakers? So the coast road will become even more congested!
These people have mental and verbal diarrhea!! Just like to hear themselves speak!
Bypass has to be done first.
Traffic has to be diverted before anything can happen.
If we can forgive that is a biased report, the central fallacy is that any case for an expanded port hinges on a magic population number, independent of consumer import volume, needs, and wants, or the best interest of the islands. A disproportionately high minimum wage population cannot be interpreted as reason to skew consumer expectations and extrapolated future behavior. Back in 2021, Joe and the PPM were very much in love, and this love note should raise eyebrows and invite scrutiny.
And Alden smiles.
Hard No. They can find operational efficiencies rather than physically expanding.
I was going to put the smiley face because the article left me laughing, but I’m not sure it would be accurate. 🙂
I always use the smiley face when I am amused by an article since we no longer have the benefit of the LOL option.
A bemused option would be wildly popular.
Bahahahahahaha