Terminal Valparaiso (written by Jaden McCarthy)
On January 15th the bus was packed with luggage and anticipation was high
for the busy day ahead. It was the beginning of our last day on the coast
before we headed to the city of Santiago later on. Our first stop, the port of Valparaiso
and the TCVAL terminal. We took a different way to the port then we had in the
past, due to increased traffic restrictions for the Pope Francis’s arrival into
Chile. We passed the National Congress of Chile during our ride which was a
very large building that was unlike the architecture that surrounded it. Our
tour guide, Valentina, mentioned that "the building has a design that most
locals don't like and criticize." Although the congress building was an attempt to decentralize
from Santiago, most of the workers live in Santiago and must commute.
We pulled up to the port ahead of schedule because we did
not encounter any delays. Because of this, we had 20 minutes on the bus before
we started. Most of us, including me, took this opportunity to catch up on some sleep. When
the time had come, we pulled into the port and our speaker, Thomas Lauer, came
onto the bus to introduce himself and raise the energy. We drove
down to the water’s edge and got off the bus. Here we met Mario, the “safety man”
as Thomas called him. He handed out a flyer that gave the terminal’s evacuation
plan, risk protection procedures, and the I.S.P.S. with deals with security of
ships and port facilities.
Mario handing out the safety flyers.
So what is TCVAL is all about? Thomas took the floor and answered
that question for us. TCVAL transports cargo between ships and land whether it
be imports or exports. Almost all of these imports and exports are fractionated
cargo, with 80% of its imports being steel. They export things such as copper, mining
products, and fruit between the months of October and April. TPS is a separate terminal
that is directly next to them. TPS deals with 95% of all the container ships
that come into the port while TCVAL deals with the other 5%. Although, he made
sure to mention that there was no competition between the two because they
specialized in different products. TPS has no space for fractionated cargo in
their terminal, while TCVAL has 3 birth sites specifically for fractionated
cargo.
Thomas explaining the basic operations of the terminal.
Thomas answered a slew of questions, including what country they
import the most from, what are the busiest times of the year, how many workers
they have, and future plans for the terminal. TCVAL imports the most from
China. Its busiest time is in the summer and their slower times between May and
August. Weekends are always the busiest time of the week. They also currently
have 105 permanent workers in the terminal and 400 to 500 contracted workers
that can work from 1 shift up to a full month. There are 3 shifts a day and
each of them is 8 hours. For future plans, he mentioned how they are in the
process of constructing a new terminal but how it has been put on hold for
extensive environmental assessment. It has been on hold since 2014 because
environmental groups are fighting against it. He went on to say that if the new
terminal was approved by the middle of this year, it could be
ready for operation in 3 years.
Left: The view of both the TCVAL and TPS terminals
(We were unable to take a closer picture once we entered the terminal)
Right: The crane for loading and unloading at the TCVAL terminal
After all the questions were answered we hopped on the bus once again and headed to the birth sites for the fractionated cargo in the terminal. As we approaches the terminal Caitlyn Linden exclaimed, "The cargo ships look so much bigger up close!" We had five minutes to look around and take a group picture with a backdrop of the pacific ocean and the hills of Valparaiso. I thanked Thomas and Mario, on behalf of all of us, for the intriguing and unique visit. Ailene Berry mentioned as we were boarding the bus, "I loved how we were outside for the whole time, it was much better then sitting in a room and seeing how they operated through pictures." When I asked Zach Valckenaere what he thought about the visit he said, "I really enjoyed seeing how the terminal operates, its something that happens everyday but we never think about how food and materials get to where they need to be."
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