North Vancouver, BC: New G3 Terminal (was Richardson Grain Elevator Expansion)

Screenshot from video

I'm so used to seeing concrete silo elevators being abandoned or expanded with steel bins and/or ground piles that it is noteworthy that new concrete silos were built in 2012. The narratives are painful to sit through because they are the usual platitudes, but the visuals are interesting. Especially the ring crane on a barge around 5:27. From then on it is "talking heads" except at 6:23, which is a closeup of a ship being loaded. This link starts the video past several people repeating the statement that we need more capacity.

(Update: Neptune Bulk Terminals has also upgraded its capacity to handle materials.)

A Google Photo is a "before" picture. I don't know why, but Bing's satellite view has poor exposure. But their birds-eye view is decent.

Birds-Eye View

The Google's satellite view catches one side done and the other side in progress. You can also see the ring crane on a barge.

Satellite

Update: This elevator is not being expanded. Instead, a new elevator is being built East of this elevator.

(2020 Update: actually, it appears they expanded the Richardson Port Terminal and built a brand new G3 Terminal.)

3D Satellite
[Note the modern chained conveyors instead of a Texas house on the new part on the right.]

Satellite

Eric Berger posted three photos with the comment: "Typically, gigantic grain elevators often appear as ghostly remnants of the past, even when they aren't. You sure don't often see a brand new, giant elevator under construction! While editing a story on the new G3 terminal in Vancouver I decided to take a look, and this is what it looked like a year ago. The shot lower right is the same location in 2016."
Bob Summers Provides a good view of grain bin layout showing the voids between the round silos called interstice bins,, very useful in grain handling allowing better blending of grain to provide a more uniform product.
Michael R Morris So the interstices's's definitely are not wasted space?
Bob Summers Definitely not. Older terminals had a variety of shapes and sizes, some bell shaped, some fan shaped, sometimes the round bins did not touch enabling larger interstices. When Chalmbers & Borton introduced the hex bin design in the early '50's all the bins had the same capacity. Now that the terminals no longer are used for this purpose larger capacity individual jump form silos, with no interstices, seem to be the standard.
Dennis DeBruler Thanks for the "before" photo. It appears the elevator is being built here:
https://www.google.com/.../@49.3034399,-123.../data=!3m1!1e3

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safe_image for New west coast grain terminal now operatingG3 Terminal Vancouver’s ship loading systems are capable of moving grain on board at 6,500 tonnes per hour. | G3 photo

G3’s new export terminal is the crown jewel in a state-of-the-art, Canadian-based grain handling network that grew out of the ashes of the Canadian Wheat Board. G3 Global Holdings, a joint venture between U.S. agribusiness Bunge Ltd. and the Saudi Agricultural & Livestock Investment Co. (SALIC), acquired a 50.1 percent share in the assets of the former wheat board for $250 million in 2015. The former CWB assets are now part of a corporate entity known as G3 Canada, a subsidiary of G3 Global Holdings. Canadian farmers still hold a 49.9 percent share in G3 Canada but have no ownership stake in the Vancouver export facility. G3’s new terminal, the first to be built in Canada in more than 50 years, is part of a modern, high-throughput grain handling network that will include new loop-track grain elevators located across Western Canada. The company has already opened nine new elevators across the Prairies and five more are under construction....The terminal’s loading dock can accommodate Capesize vessels, and its ship loading systems are capable of moving grain on board at 6,500 tonnes per hour, a new industry standard, the company said....Construction on the facility began in March 2017.

I never heard of "capesize" before. They are big.

The term Capesize is used to signify those vessels which cannot pass through the canals of Panama and Suez and thus generally traverse through the Capes of Good Hope and Horn. Their name is derived from the originally taken route by cargo vessels, passing through the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, so as to complete the necessary shipping voyage. Capesize vessels usually have 150,000 DWT tonnage capacity and form a majority of bulk carrier ships. They are usually medium – large sized vessels, which also include Very Large Bulk Carriers (VLBC) and Very Large Ore Carriers (VLOR) with more than 200,000 DWT. Presently, different ship sizes with maximum DWTs of about 4, 00,000 tonnes are classified under the Capesize vessel category. [MarineInsight]