Thunder Bay port does some heavy lifting

Thunder Bay Port Authority's pursuit of project cargoes is going over in a big way.

The M/V Daniella, a heavy-lift vessel, nosed up to Keefer Terminal, Aug. 6, to unload a 450-tonne reactor headed for the Alberta oil sands.

The voyage to Thunder Bay was the last leg of a 12,249-nautical mile journey from the port of Higashi Harima, Japan. The reactor was loaded onto a CN rail car for the cargo's final destination, the Canadian Natural Resources' oil sands project in Fort McMurray. The reactor had a gross loaded on rail weight of more than 1.3 million pounds.

The port authority and the City of Thunder Bay are billing themselves as an emerging manufacturing and fabrication hub intent on serving the robust Western Canada oil industry.

Port Authority CEO Tim Heney is working with CN Rail to push similar freight through the port onto the rail network. "We look forward to new opportunities that this gateway will provide for the port and the community."

CN has acquired and made upgrades to a short-line railroad from Boyle, Alta to Fort McMurray to accomodate maximum project cargoes.