The HRO and accompanying Transport & Works Act Order (TWAO) have now been approved. This means the project has gained all the necessary statutory consents in order to commence the development phase.

When completed, the Northern Gateway Container Terminal will have three berths capable of handling the modern vessels carrying up to 10,000 teu of containers. The approach channel will be dredged to a new depth of 14.5m and berth pockets will be dredged to 16m. There will be 1,000m of new riverside quay and the new facility add 1.5m teu to existing capacity. It is expected to create up to 5,500 jobs in the Tees Valley.
'This is very significant news for the North of England and for the supply chains of very many UK companies, said PD Ports’ group chief executive officer David Robinson.
'The HRO approval is a major forward step to the financial viability of the project and subject to the commercial hurdles, will allow the PD Ports team to focus on its delivery. This decision will ultimately give shippers and shipping lines serving the needs of the North of England and Scotland a valuable alternative to their traditional use of the Southern UK ports when trading, with particularly the Far East and other major global markets.
'We have achieved a successful planning approval for this large scale port infrastructure project in record time. It is less than 22 months since we submitted our plans. This further demonstrates the excellent support we have been given from all the stakeholders in this project and underlines the need for this type of development to support the regional economy.

'We have still got much to do to make the plan become a reality but we will be working hard to commence detailed engineering design, commence implementation and see construction begin on site as soon as possible.
'Today is a significant step for Teesport and for the maritime industry as a whole. A deep sea container terminal on the Tees will attract container ships direct to Teesport from around the globe. All those imported goods needed for Northern consumers and retailers in the likes of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle can now travel the short distance from port to consumer via retailers’ shelves.
'This will also result in tens of millions of lorry miles being saved by stopping the wastefulness of all those containers being landed at a Southern UK port but being destined by road or rail for the North.