Tacoma - The Port of Tacoma recently awarded the largest single capital improvement contract in Port history.

ICON Materials of Kent, Wash., the low bidder, will manage construction of a new container terminal for Evergreen America Inc. The contract awards ICON $46.2 million to build the terminal and a dedicated intermodal yard.

The project is expected to create 900 construction jobs during each year of construction, and once the new terminal opens, there will be 1,190 direct port-industry jobs associated with moving cargo through the facility. Construction completion is expected in late 2004.

Most recently, ICON was the primary contractor on the Port's Blair Terminal Improvement project and construction of the $40 million, 144-acre Marshall Avenue Auto Facility.

Some aspects of work at the former Pierce County Terminal site are already underway. Warehouses have been demolished and wharf construction and dredging is in progress. The Port's auto processing facilities have been relocated to the Marshall Avenue complex. Work on the new Evergreen Terminal was expected to start last month.

The 171-acre terminal will have an annual capacity of more than 480,000 container lifts -- or approximately 840,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent "containers") when it opens. The terminal complex will also have an on-dock intermodal yard with the capacity of simultaneously loading and unloading 72 intermodal rail cars, each 325 ft. long. Evergreen also has options to expand the terminal to 237 acres with a 108-car intermodal yard, bringing potential annual capacity to approximately 1.2 million TEUs.

Located at the terminus of the 2.2-mile-long Blair Waterway, the planned seven-crane, facility will feature two linear berths (approximately 2,260 ft. long), a container yard, a dedicated intermodal yard and associated infrastructure. If required, there is flexibility for a third berth at a later date.