Well, the last of the 4 Port of Seattle tours was this week, and we got to see a couple of different cargo terminals and a railroad gateway. Unfortunately we were only allowed to drive through in a bus, no chance of getting out and taking real pictures, so please forgive the poor photography. I was still geekin' out, though, and was quite happy afterwards. Ah, engineering! Logistics! Efficiency! The project manager in me was all a quiver. Photos after the break!
We gathered at Terminal 10 on Harbor Island. Checked in, got our badge, walked around a bit and took some pictures, and then got on a bus.
View up to the mouth of the Duwamish, another Hyundai ship loading/unloading.
Downtown Seattle over the tank farm....
View of the other side of the flour mill that we saw on the Duwamish trip...
Then we were off! First stop, cargo terminal 18 on Harbor Island. SSA leases this terminal for their cargo transfers. First on the site, we went through the Optical Character Recognition scan (used for scanning information off of truck, trailer, and container) and then past the RPM - radiation portal monitors. These can the truck/trailer/container for radiation, and are VERY sensitive
! They can detect the natural radiation off of pottery or ceramic, let alone dangerous stuff.
The RPMs speed up the entrance/departure process, just one of many improvements in that area. One of those is flexible entrance/exit lanes - depending on what the volumes are, the lanes can be switched from entrance to exit, with signaling just like railroads:
Then we're off to the container yard, the pier edge, and the CRANES! I love these things. Unfortunately the light was both fading, and reflecting off my windows, so many of these aren't fully usable.
The "top pick" trucks that run around and can pick up a container stack from the top:
And then the little runabouts that can lift up one container:
More cranes:
Here's where they hook up refrigerator containers and test them out to make sure they will work on the whole trip. They also get cleaned here, I think. Then they're made available for use.
We drove past another gate with another exit/entrance setup, and these are RFI scanners and kiosks for the drivers to use to enter info etc - all of which speeds up the turnaround process, which means more money for the truck drivers (they are paid by the number of containers they deliver, not by hour or set rate), reduces idling time and thus reduces emissions, speeds up the turnaround time for unloading/loading the ships, speeds up the delivery of goods, etc etc. It's all good!
Next up was - and I loved this - A MOLASSES SHIP! Yes! An entire ship FULL of molasses! There's a molasses tank farm just south of the ship. A MOLASSES TANK FARM. I never knew......
Next up: Walla Walla Sweet Onions, being shipped over to Asia. They have to leave one door off of the container, otherwise the gases will build up and the container will swell - and sometimes explode!
Next, a bunch of crane pictures - sorry, I just adore these!
The ever-present Starbucks building across the channel:
Space Needle poking up above the container stacks:
More onion containers!
One more crane photo:
Back through the OCR on our way out....
Then the RFIs and kiosk
s:
On the way out we passed by these empty tanks - they had been filled with gas for plasma TVs being made in China. Sent back empty, and being trucked back to Eastern WA to be refilled and shipped back over again!
Then we headed on over to the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) rail yard, to see their cargo container load/unload system. It's considered a ... "short haul yard", in that it's not direct from ship to rail, there's a quarter mile hop from ship to truck to rail. These new electric cranes in the rail yard have double the speed of this transition - more happiness for truck drivers, fewer emissions etc etc. Godd stuff all around! Plus, with this redesigned rail yard, they are able to fill longer trains, and build 'em longer, and get going faster headed out!
And that was it - back to terminal 10 and a short reception, where again I did not win any swag (darn it!). I was presented with my graduation certificate, though, for having completed the Port 101 series of classes. Heh.
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