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Giant cargo cranes arrive in Seattle

SEATTLE — There’s a sudden change to the Seattle skyline — with the arrival of four of the world’s biggest container cranes.

The cranes arrived Sunday at Terminal 5 in West Seattle and mark the beginning of a new era of large ships in Puget Sound.

Terminal 5 is scheduled to reopen from renovations in early 2022, bringing a third cargo terminal in Seattle back online.

That will help ease a serious backlog at the port.

“It will certainly be a relief valve,” said Bob Watters, senior vice president at SSA Marine.

Right now, ships are waiting at anchors all around Puget Sound for space at Terminal 18 or Terminal 30 in Seattle.

At times, truck traffic around the port stretches far beyond the dock, impacting the commute.

Terminal operators are expanding gate hours to spread out the worst of the traffic and moving empty containers to storage areas so that there’s more room to offload ships.

“Things are starting to improve, which we’re excited about, but there is definitely more work to be done,” said Melanie Stambaugh of the Northwest Seaport Alliance.

Demand for items made in Asia skyrocketed during the pandemic, and the delivery system of ships and trains hasn’t kept up.