"From a small metal jetty to the First Deep Water Harbor in the country"


The coastal configuration of our area, with its long channel flowing all the way to the end of the bay among the islands has special calm waters, and therefore provides safety to vessels. Before the port facilities even existed, this area was used as a natural anchoring place and as a sanctuary to navigators.

When the national government decided to build the Argentine Protecting Fortress (later Bahía Blanca), all the materials to be used in the fort and the projected town construction came by sea. In march 1825 the vessel "Luisa" moored with her cargo at the ravines of the bay. The sailors landed in the desertic saline lands of the White Bay. An entire symbol. The future greatness of this far south was due to come from the sea, to go on in the sea and to continue in the sea.

The development of the harbor facilities began when the national government granted the concession to the Southern Railroad to build a port in the Bahía Blanca area. The works began in 1883 and the jetty was inaugurated on September 26th, 1885, and this date has been considered as the foundation date of the nearby Ingeniero White port town.

This first installation, of completely metallic construction, was a curved jetty for the mooring of three offshore vessels and three domestic vessels. However, its traffic capacity grew amazingly, over 1,200,000 tons in 1900 (1,000,000 tons were cereal exports).

This explosive growth gave grounds to the execution of new facilities. Between 1902 and 1904 a High Level Jetty was built and the metal dock became the T-shaped Iron Jetty that identified our port in the last century.

In 1908 the Storage Jetties No. 1 and No. 2, which are the initial constructions of the Ing. White Harbor together with the above jetties, are inaugurated.

As Ing. White (belonging to the Railroad of the South) grew, the development of another port began a few miles away. Puerto Galvan (named after the nearby stream) was built by the Pacific Railroad to allow a direct transportation of the hinterland products.

It was inaugurated in 1905 and still today the refirbished jetty structure continues granting an efficient service, being the original installation still on commercial duty.

The evolution of the harbor continues in the 20's with the beginning of the construction of the General Loading Dock and goes on with the construction of the Central Grain Storage Elevator (sites 5/6 and 7/8 and Elevator No. 3 - Storage capacity: 142,000 t) between 1925 and 1933.

In the 60's, the harbor had a great development. Managed by the General Harbor Administration and the National Grain Association, site 9 and elevator No. 5 are built. These works, together with the partial deepening of the access channel in the late 60's, made Bahía Blanca the deepest harbor in the country, allowing the operation of 40' vessels.

Between 1971 and 1972, the Jetty for Flammables is built in Puerto Galván. Two mooring sites and a local zero depth of 40' grant the safest harbor operation, as the fuel is handled far away from the harbor.

In the 80's, the Luis Piedrabuena power plant is built, thus providing a new jetty for the harbor. It was originally designed for carbon or fuel oil, and then it was adapted for grains and began operations as from 1986.

At the end of the decade a new qualitative growth comes true. This is linked to a greater depth of the access channel and inner sites. The execution of the dredging works took place between 1989 and 1992. It extracted fifty million cubic meters of sand at an approximate cost of two hundred million U.S. dollars, allowing the operation of vessels of up to 45' draught.

This exceptional work in the harbor engineering gave the harbor its importance. It became the main Argentine overseas harbor due to its depth and to the excellent connection to railroads and highways for linking production to consumption centers.

The commercial possibilities generated as from the greater depth of the access channel was improved with private investments. In 1993 a new terminal was built for the loading of cereals and by-products and the existing terminals have enlarged their storage, reception and loading capacities. Millions of dollars have been invested in the works.

The development of the area known as Cangrejales located between both harbors and with a 1800 m water front and an available surface of 140 ha and these investments bring about a future perspective which potentiality can exceed the most optimisitic forecasts for the Bahía Blanca Harbor.