Chilliwack – MAY 23 UPDATE – The newest addition to the Molson Coors brewery family, the Fraser Valley Brewery at Chilliwack, will be one large step closer to their planned opening in 2019. This week, the arrival of 50 massive brewing tanks will be a logistical and visual spectacle. Tanks arriving from overseas will be offloaded at New Westminster and barged up the Fraser River for unloading 12 kilometers from the Chilliwack brewery site. The tanks will then be transferred onto flatbed trucks for transportation into Chilliwack.
It will look like huge beer cans coming down the Fraser.
“We are very excited to be building two new breweries in Canada, the Fraser Valley brewery in Chilliwack and our new brewery in Longueuil, Quebec.” said Chief Supply Officer for Molson Coors Canada Amy Michtich. “This is a particularly exciting time for the team planning our new brewery in the Fraser Valley at Chilliwack. These huge tanks will be arriving from overseas, then barging up the Fraser River towards the brewery site. It will be an impressive sight to see on water and land”.
The Molson Coors social media and marketing teams are planning to create some excitement and interest about the tank journey by encouraging British Columbians to share “ #BeerTanks Selfies” if they catch a glimpse of the tanks underway.
FACTS ABOUT THE TANK TRANSPORT:
*• 50 tanks will be arriving from overseas in the Port of New Westminster
*• 22 tanks sized 5.5M in diameter will be loaded onto 6 barges and move up river to Chilliwack
*• 28 smaller tanks ranging in size will be unloaded to ground transportation to Chilliwack
*• Molson is planning to commence barging on during the week of May 21st
*• The first on land overnight transportation of large tanks to the brewery site is anticipated to be May 30th
*• Ziemann is the company managing the transportation of tanks from New Westminster to Chilliwack
*• In addition to the tanks arriving from overseas, 50 tanks are being built in Abbotsford, British Columbia
*• The planned date for the new Molson brewery in Chilliwack opening is early 2019
MAY 19 ORIGINAL STORY – 7 Years ago, six massive beer vats headed to the Molson Coors brewery in Toronto from Hamilton. It was an amazing piece of engineering and transportation. Note that the huge tanks went to the port of Hamilton and had to be trucked into Toronto via the 401 and other highways that could accommodate the large load.
Ferg Devin and Josh Stewart with Molson Coors told FVN that while the vats for the new Chilliwack brewery won’t come down highway one, they still have to be barged into town. That will happen after the tanks are off loaded from China at New Westminster and barged down the Fraser River to a staging point near the Wack. That is scheduled to start Monday May 21. That of course, Mother Nature permitting with the freshet.
Devin said that his people talked with Mission Mayor Randy Hawes who remarked, “You do know that the river is rising?”
50 tanks, from large to mega-large will eventually come to Chilliwack. Half down via the barge and the other half will be small enough to squeeze down the highway and under overpasses. The smaller tanks are made in Abbotsford while the larger ones come from China.
There will be overnight road closures as the vats make their way into town, with notices expected to come out on may 27, and the first movement on May 30. You will notice on the map below that the route includes Industrial/Progress Way, Lickman Road, Luckakuck Way, Evans Road, Yale Road, and Kerr Avenue. The convoy will purposely avoid going UNDER any overpass.
FVN was contacted by an electrician named “Ryan” who told Fraser Valley News that he can’t wait to get to work on the project when the walls of the contrcution site close in around the brewery and the hard wiring begins.
Molson Coors says they are confident in their time line that the plant will be making suds by April 2019.
Here’s the Molson Coors Video on the 2011 transport of the vats from Hamilton to Toronto. This gives you perspective of what will happen in Chilliwack:
