The purpose of this course to provide a guideline on how to conduct an assessment for a port redevelopment project, specifically looking at the infrastructure and environmental constraints present within the properties to be reviewed. This initial assessment phase should be considered non-invasive, i.e. no sampling of soils, groundwater, and physical buildings and structures, but more of a roadmap for where future investigations should be focused should a site be attractive for redevelopment. The assessment should be used as a tool to analyze the environmental impacts and physical infrastructure present at the site with relation to the potential redevelopment of the Site. A complete redevelopment assessment will go beyond engineering review and include economic assessments (market analysis) and planning assessments, as well as legal reviews. This course will focus on the environmental and infrastructures assessments associated with a port site, since this course is aimed at an engineering audience. Sometimes redevelopment assessments are conducted with a specific new use in mind, which helps narrow the scope of the assessments, other times its conducted with a broader view of what could happen with the site in the future. For the purposes of this course, we will spend the most time looking at the broad view redevelopment aspects, but we will also discuss screening site for a specific end use as well.
Oftentimes ports that have potential for redevelopment are blighted and have fallen past their peak usages, therefore, the environmental impacts dominate the redevelopment options. Environmental limitations are common within properties that have current and historical industrial usage and do not represent a barrier to redevelopment, rather they represent factors and limitations that need to be addressed as part of the redevelopment.
Similarly, the physical infrastructure for sites that are being eyed for redevelopment may have fallen into some level of disrepair or less frequent maintenance. Other times the physical infrastructure on site is in good working order, however your client is anticipating or exploring a market change. In any redevelopment scenario, it’s important to look at the physical infrastructure to see how it has played a role on site in the past, currently, and what role it could play in a redeveloped site.
It is very important however during these initial assessments to highlight what the potential issues could be with respect to both infrastructure and environmental considerations so that your client or the end-user can have a better understanding of what cost considerations could impact the redevelopment of the site and warrant further investigation.
