COLUMBIA RIVER VESSEL ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE ANALYSIS

The recently completed Columbia River deepening (43 feet/13.1 meters) project provides Columbia River ports with opportunities for handling larger vessels. The deepened channel, in conjunction with the LOADMAX numerical hydraulic analysis stage prediction tool, optimizes available navigational depths and consequently maximizes the benefits from recent new dredging work and annual maintenance dredging. As a result, the Port of Portland (Port) requested that an arrival/departure analysis of water depths and transit times for a potential larger class of vessel (i.e., 6,500 TEU container ships) be performed in order to determine if regularly scheduled service is feasible. This paper summarizes the methodology and results of the vessel routing arrival/departure analysis.