Roberts Bank is home to a twin-terminal

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

facility located on the mainland coastline of the

Strait of Georgia The Strait of Georgia (french: Détroit de Géorgie) or the Georgia Strait is an arm of the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the extreme southwestern mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada and the extreme northwestern mainland coast ...

Delta, British Columbia Delta is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, as part of Greater Vancouver. Located on the Fraser Lowland south of Fraser River's south arm, it is bordered by the city of Richmond on the Lulu Island to the north, N ...

, Canada. Opened in 1970 with Westshore Terminals as its only tenant, Roberts Bank was expanded in 1983–84, and in June 1997 opened a second terminal, th
GCT Deltaport
container facility. Part of

Port of Vancouver The Port of Vancouver is the largest port in Canada and the fourth largest in North America by tonnes of cargo, facilitating trade between Canada and more than 170 world economies. The port is managed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, whic ...

, Roberts Bank is also known as the Outer Harbour of Canada's busiest port. Westshore is the busiest single

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

export terminal in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and is operated by the Westar Group on a long-term contract. It typically ships over 20 million tonnes of export coal a year and early in 2010 completed a $49-million equipment upgrade, bringing its capacity from 24 million to 29 million tonnes per year. Some of this coal is

metallurgical coal Metallurgical coal or coking coal is a grade of coal that can be used to produce good-quality coke. Coke is an essential fuel and reactant in the blast furnace process for primary steelmaking. The demand for metallurgical coal is highly coupled ...

from mines in the interior of British Columbia, some of which are operated by

Teck Resources Teck Resources Limited, known as Teck Cominco until late 2008, is a diversified natural resources company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is engaged in mining and mineral development, including coal for the steelmaking indust ...

. This coal mined within British Columbia pays a provincial carbon tax on its embodied emissions. However, some of the coal exported through the Roberts Bank is mined within the United States, and is exported through Canada to China. Communities along the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

have rejected proposals for coal export terminals for environmental reasons, and so the Roberts Bank Superport is the only way for coal producers in the

Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very s ...

to export coal to Asia. The American coal exported through Roberts Bank does not pay a provincial carbon tax. This practice has been criticized by environmentalists in British Columbia. Like the

Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal, as part of the BC Ferries system and of Highway 17, is a major transportation facility in Delta, British Columbia, positioned less than from the 49th parallel along the Canada–United States border. It is located a ...

to the southeast, Roberts Bank was built at the end of a long causeway over a shallow bank. Originally created as a pod of reclaimed land for a major coal port, it is now four times that size. In January 2010, Deltaport added a third berth and doubled its capacity. It is now one of the busiest import/export ports in North America and a major hub for container trucking companies. Roberts Bank is serviced by the Robert's Bank Rail Corridor, which serves

CN Rail The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

CP Rail The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

, and

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

trains. It opened on April 16 1970 under the B.C. Harbours Board. Additionally,

Seaspan International Seaspan ULC (formerly Seaspan Marine Corporation) provides marine-related services to the Pacific Northwest. Within the Group are three shipyards, an intermodal ferry and car float business, and also a tug and barge transportation company that ...

provides

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...

services to both terminals at peninsula.

Incidents

On December 7, 2012, the Panama-registered and Japan-owned bulk carrier ''Cape Apricot'' crashed into a causeway at the Westshore coal terminal, destroying about 100 metres of the structure, including a coal conveyor system, according to the ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

''. Port Metro Vancouver's Harbour Master said that this was first marine accident in the 42-year history of the coal terminal.Vancouver Sun
January 4, 2013. The accident resulted in an estimated 30 tonnes of coal going into the water from the severed conveyor and the disabling of the larger of the terminal's two coal-loading berths. It was estimated that reconstruction of the conveyor system would be completed by March 31, 2013. The berth was returned to service in February 2013. Reconstruction of the causeway was completed in late April 2013.

References

*{{BCGNIS, 51022, Roberts Bank (port)

External links

GCT Canada Limited Partnership
operators of the Port Metro Vancouver's GCT Deltaport, under a long-term lease agreement.
The Canadian Encyclopedia entry for Delta, British Columbia

Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership
Ports and harbours of British Columbia Buildings and structures in Delta, British Columbia Container terminals Coal terminals Coal in Canada Foreign trade of the United States Foreign trade of China Transport in Delta, British Columbia