Iraq's Port of Umm Qasr is located at the southwestern edge of the country's 53-kilometers-long Persian Gulf shoreline along the Khawr Az Zubayr adjacent to the border with the State of Kuwait. As Iraq's only deep-water seaport, the port at Umm Qasr is a critical link towards the import of life-supporting assistance being provided to the people of Iraq by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Stevedoring Services of America (SSA) was awarded a contract by USAID to complete a three-phased project to: 1) assess the condition of the port facilities immediately after takeover by Coalition Forces; 2) write an implementation plan that describes the steps necessary to enable port operations; and 3) manage the operation of the port for 12 months, with two, one-year contract options. The objective of the assessment was to evaluate the Umm Qasr Port facilities for the ability to immediately import USAID-provided materials, supplies, and other cargoes, including urgent food assistance and materials for reconstruction and rehabilitation. Additionally, the assessment was to identify port-imposed constraints to be addressed in the Phase 2, Port Improvement Implementation Plan, so that during Phase 3, Port Operations, an adequate flow of through shipments will occur. The 14-member assessment team was comprised of stevedoring operation specialists from SSA and port design, construction, and operation engineers from BERGER/ABAM Engineers Inc. This paper describes the efforts of the team to accomplish the requirements of the USAID contract, from the government-mandated chemical and biological warfare protective suit training at Fort Benning, Georgia, to the on-site investigation at the Port of Umm Qasr that was complicated by the total lack of reference documents such as engineering drawings and specifications; by requirements for armed escorts; and daily changes in security requirements, border-crossing procedures, and site accessibility.


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    Title :

    Wartime Assessment of the Port of Umm Qasr, Iraq


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Ports Conference 2004 ; 2004 ; Houston, Texas, United States


    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2004-05-13




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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