Cruise Ship Terminal Expansion - Port of Vancouver, Canada

The forecast growth in the British Columbia and Alaska Cruise industry anticipates that the Port of Vancouver will need to handle over 1,000,000 passengers in 2001 and that more than $500 million will be generated in the local economy. In answer to this opportunity the Port has undertaken two major expansions to its existing cruise ship terminal infrastructure. The recently completed Centerm Improvement Project and the extension to the Canada Place Cruise Ship Terminal, which is presently under construction, incorporate new structures adjacent and integral with older existing structures. The design of the existing structures does not meet the levels of protection required by present seismic codes and they have very different performance characteristics to the new structures. Seismic performance was further complicated by variable site soils that had a high potential to liquefy. Additionally both facilities were required to remain in operation during construction. This paper discusses the design challenges and solutions that were developed in implementing these projects.