On Thursday evening, the Port of San Pedro 'Board of Harbor Commissioners' approved, without discussion, 'Environmental Management- ADOPTION OF THE FINAL INITIAL STUDY/MITIGATED NEGATIVE DECLARATION AND APPROVAL OF THE BERTH 240 TRANSPORTATION VESSELS MANUFACTURING FACILITY PROJECT'.
The proposed Project involves the issuance of a 10-year Lease (with up to two 10-year lease extension/renewal options) for the construction and operation of a facility to manufacture large commercial transportation vessels at Berth 240 off Seaside Avenue on Terminal Island. The approximately 18-acre proposed Project site includes portions of the former Southwest Marine site. The site is entirely disturbed with abandoned industrial buildings, unused compacted dirt area, and paved areas. Operation would involve research and development of transportation vessels and would likely include general manufacturing procedures such as welding, composite curing, cleaning, painting, and assembly operations. The majority of operations would take place inside the facility, with exterior operations limited to transit of vehicles, forklift traffic, and mobilization of manufactured products onto a barge at the dockside for testing and delivery. Finished vessels would need to be transported via water due to their size; thus there is the need to locate the facility immediately adjacent to the water. In addition, the lease would accommodate recovery operations undertaken by Space Exploration Technologies to bring to shore vehicles returning from space that are retrieved by an autonomous drone ship offshore.
Good news!The location for the LA port BFR manufacturing facility has been officially confirmed (and approved).From Reddit:QuoteOn Thursday evening, the Port of San Pedro 'Board of Harbor Commissioners' approved, without discussion, 'Environmental Management- ADOPTION OF THE FINAL INITIAL STUDY/MITIGATED NEGATIVE DECLARATION AND APPROVAL OF THE BERTH 240 TRANSPORTATION VESSELS MANUFACTURING FACILITY PROJECT'. Here's an excerpt from the approved document (courtesy of Reddit user Zucal):QuoteThe proposed Project involves the issuance of a 10-year Lease (with up to two 10-year lease extension/renewal options) for the construction and operation of a facility to manufacture large commercial transportation vessels at Berth 240 off Seaside Avenue on Terminal Island. The approximately 18-acre proposed Project site includes portions of the former Southwest Marine site. The site is entirely disturbed with abandoned industrial buildings, unused compacted dirt area, and paved areas. Operation would involve research and development of transportation vessels and would likely include general manufacturing procedures such as welding, composite curing, cleaning, painting, and assembly operations. The majority of operations would take place inside the facility, with exterior operations limited to transit of vehicles, forklift traffic, and mobilization of manufactured products onto a barge at the dockside for testing and delivery. Finished vessels would need to be transported via water due to their size; thus there is the need to locate the facility immediately adjacent to the water. In addition, the lease would accommodate recovery operations undertaken by Space Exploration Technologies to bring to shore vehicles returning from space that are retrieved by an autonomous drone ship offshore.It's interesting that the applicant appears to be WW Marine Composites, LLC , and BFR stages are referred to as 'commercial transportation vessels'.
It's interesting that the applicant appears to be WW Marine Composites, LLC , and BFR stages are referred to as 'commercial transportation vessels'.
Most materials necessary for manufacturing would be delivered via truck and approximately 10 truck trips per day would be expected with deliveries. For oversized components, deliveries would be via barge delivering directly to the new facility from Seattle. It is anticipated that there would be an average of one delivery by barge per month, with peak periods of a vessels manufacturing necessitating up to three deliveries by barge.
A relatively modestly-sized factory: ~200,000 square feet.32 meter height. Construction would last 16-18 months.A smaller 65,000 square foot building (also 32 meter height) would be built earlier. I guess that's where the early BFS will be built.
In addition, the lease would accommodate recovery operations undertaken by Space ExplorationTechnologies to bring to shore vehicles returning from space that are retrieved by an autonomous drone shipoffshore. Retrieved vehicles would then be transported via ground transportation to the company’s facility inHawthorne for reuse. The supply barge used for these recovery operations would be stored along the berthassociated with the proposed Project lease area. These activities are ongoing with the Port and would berelocated to the proposed Project site to reduce shipping constraints at the current location. The recoveryoperations would be accommodated at the southern end of the existing wharf. Recovery activities would notoccur on the same day(s) as export activities associated with the proposed Project.
For purposes of estimating project emissions, and based on information provided by the project applicant, it is assumed that construction of the project would commence in 20184 and would last approximately 12-18 months, ending in 2019. The project would take an additional 4-6 months after construction to install equipment. [...]4 The analysis assumes a construction start date of April 2018, which represents the earliest date construction would initiate. [...]
[A]n independent source confirmed that this facility is, indeed, intended for the manufacture of the BFR rocket in Los Angeles.
Well this is exciting news isn't it?Since they are moving assembly outside of the Hawthorne facility I think it makes sense to revisit the diameter. Go for the wider and shorter vehicle for thermal efficiency on the tanks.Maybe EM is just leaving room for BFR2 down the road.Edit: it will be interesting to see if this site gets more construction attention than the BC launch site.
Quote from: wannamoonbase on 03/19/2018 05:54 pmWell this is exciting news isn't it?Since they are moving assembly outside of the Hawthorne facility I think it makes sense to revisit the diameter. Go for the wider and shorter vehicle for thermal efficiency on the tanks.Maybe EM is just leaving room for BFR2 down the road.Edit: it will be interesting to see if this site gets more construction attention than the BC launch site.BC is to be ready for test flights by early 2019... BFS (prototype?) is being built now in Hawthorne. 16-18 month construction places these facilities at completion summer of next year.I suspect that these facilities are for full production of BFR and BFS; the near the launch site idea must have been over-ridden by the location of the most qualified work force and qualified employment resource pool. Significant additions to the SpaceX navy will be forthcoming.