The project scope was to expand the Vancouver Centerm terminal’s design capacity to 1.5 million TEUs per year.

The Centerm Expansion Project consisted of a series of improvements to Centerm’s container terminal and port roads with the goal of improving goods movement and access along the entire south shore port area.
The maximum container handling capacity at Centerm increased by two-thirds and the terminal footprint  increased by approximately 15 percent.
VanPile’s scope of work included:

• Construction of two 14.5 m wide x 37.4 m long x 20 m tall concrete caissons in VanPile’s North Vancouver graving dock utilizing the floating slip form technique. Approximately 4,500 m³ of concrete was placed along with one million tonnes of rebar between the two structures;
• Towing of caissons to project site and installation to the seabed, allowing the berth face of the west end of the terminal to be extended;
• Installation of approximately 1,400 stone columns (17,000 lineal metres) using the vibro-replacement technique as well as compaction of the mattress rock using the Vibro-Compaction technique on approximately 800 vibro compaction points (4,300 lineal metres);
• Placement of approximately 20,000 m³ mattress rock and leveling course material with fine underwater grading to a tolerance of +/- 25 mm of level over an area of 1,800 m².