Photo: Photo Courtesy of WBZ's Matt Shearer
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Bigger ships may drift into South Boston in the near future, as the Massachusetts Port Authority's $850 million investment in Conley Container Terminal's waterside and landside infrastructure renovations allowed for the Port to host its first goliath of a ship on Sunday.
The Evergreen Marine Corporation's Ever Fortune, a 1,100-foot-long ship (about the length of three football fields), pulled into Conley Terminal Sunday morning, making history as the largest container ship to ever to call on the Port of Boston. According to a statement from Massport, Ever Fortune can carry 12,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), but with the new upgrades, Conley Terminal was more than ready to welcome the ship with its capacity for vessels carrying up to 14,000 TEUs.
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$350 million of Massport's investment went into the Boston Harbor Dredging Project, which was a partnership between the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Massport, and brought the harbor to -47 feet and expanded the turning basin to 1,725 feet, allowing for bigger ships to pass through.
Work to deepen the main ship channels began in July of 2018, enabling the Port to accommodate the larger container vessels.
Conley Terminal also gained an additional three large ship-to-shore cranes and a new deep water-berth to serve larger vessels coming to Boston.
WBZ's Matt Shearer (@MattWBZ) reports.
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