Pier 400 Expansion Underway October 2003

STURTEVANT, Wis. (Oct. 20, 2003) – Pier 400, the huge cargo container terminal in the Port of Los Angeles, opened in August 2002 as an important gateway for shipping between the United States and Pacific Rim nations. Six months later, a $48 million expansion to the terminal began.

The pier expansion, scheduled for completion in June 2004, will add 3,200 linear feet of concrete wharf for space to load and unload cargo ships. Furthermore, the cargo container yard will expand by 126 acres and the berths, by 15 acres. Additional back lands and terminal buildings also are being constructed. Upon completion, the entire Pier 400 complex will encompass 484 acres.

D&N Concrete Pumping of Gardena, Calif. is one of the key contractors on the job, pumping about 1,100 cubic yards of concrete per week. Using a Putzmeister 52Z-Meter boom pump, D&N completed three long-reaching concrete pours out to the pier. Equipment subsequently could be driven on the newly finished section to reduce the distance over which concrete had to be poured to finish other areas.

The concrete that D&N Concrete is pumping is a 5,000-psi, 1-inch pump mix supplied by National Ready Mix of Los Angeles. The pumping and ready-mix companies will work in unison for 36 consecutive weeks, placing approximately 40,000 cubic yards.

Dan Navarro of D&N said, “The job requires continually high-volume outputs over a six to eight hour period to keep labor costs down. That’s why the Putzmeister 36Z-Meter boom pump was chosen. Its .20H pump cell offers the highest volume output in the industry. Often the unit was pumping over 1,000 yards in under six hours, which is a phenomenal rate of placement.”

Not only does the Putzmeister 36Z-Meter offer a .20H pump cell with a maximum rated 260-yard output, but it features a Multi-Z boom configuration. Sales representative Dane Dixon at D&N said, “Although the 36Z was averaging extremely high outputs from 190 to 200 yards an hour, it still achieved a really smooth flow with very minimal boom bounce no matter how the Z-boom was positioned.”

Project Manager Steve Riser of Traylor Pacific, the project general contractor based in Irvine, Calif., said, “D&N Concrete Pumping has done an excellent job. They have been extremely instrumental in the success we have had to date.”

Major features of the Pier 400 expansion project will include exceptional land-side and water-side access, an ideal terminal configuration, more than 1.5 miles of queue storage, four-lane highway access, a utility corridor and grade-separate rail access. In several other areas, space is available for additional expansion.

When the expansion project is finished, Pier 400 will be the largest proprietary container terminal in the world with a projected annual throughput of 2.4 million cargo containers, each 20 feet in length. APM Terminals recently signed a renewable, 25-year lease with the Port of Los Angeles.

JOB SPECS: Owner and architect: Port of Los Angeles – San Pedro, Calif. General contractor: Traylor Pacific – Irvine, Calif. Pumping contractor: D&N Concrete Pumping – Gardena, Calif. Ready-mix supplier: National Ready Mix – Los Angeles Equipment: Putzmeister 36Z-Meter and 52Z-Meter concrete boom pumps