Simulation Study of Port Container Terminal Quay Side Traffic

Abstract

This paper studies the berth operation, in particular, the quay side traffic condition in one of the busiest container port in Hong Kong. The developed simulation model effectively incorporates both the traffic model and service model, built using the AutoMod simulation tool. Sensitivity analysis was performed on different scenarios and configurations at the quay side. The results reveal that an increase in the number of internal tractors increases the productivity of the quay cranes, and the deployment of a traffic controller can improve the traffic congestions but may not help to improve the utilization of the quay cranes. Apart from the flow control of the tractors, the closure of tractor lanes under a quay crane also reduces the performance of the quay crane. The simulation studies performed provides a definitive basis for evaluating the performance of the berth and for determining the potential for the operation improvements of a port container terminal in general.