UPS wraps up $1 billion expansion in Louisville
The expansion, which cost over $1 billion, more than doubles the size of the sorting complex to 4 million square feet – the equivalent of more than 80 football fields – and automates the express package sorting process with advanced, customized technology.
The enlargement of the newly named UPS Worldport is the largest capital project in the company’s 95-year history and increases the hub’s sorting capacity to 304,000 packages per hour – or more than 84 packages every second. The expanded capacity and automated sorting translate to greater reliability and faster transit times for customers, UPS said.
Planning for the project began in 1995, while construction started in 1999. Mike Eskew, UPS’ chairman and chief executive, said the expansion, together with the carrier’s global network, enables UPS to connect the world as never before.
The movement of packages through the vast facility’s labyrinth of high-speed conveyors is synchronized by a sophisticated system of cameras that read the detailed information encoded in UPS “smart labels,” triggering a network of computer-activated sorting and tracking devices that process 59 million database transactions every hour. Packages are routed through the system’s 122 miles of conveyors in as little as eight minutes.
Customized software and technology ensure the hub’s efficiency, reducing manual package handling during the sorting process from six times to two, UPS said. The company added that the project could be expanded to accommodate up to 500,000 packages each hour, or 140 packages per second.
The completion of the massive hub is just one aspect of UPS’ recent expansion of its air network worldwide, the company noted. In the past year it also has opened an intra-Asia air hub in the Philippines, where volume from countries linked to the hub grew by 20 percent during the second quarter of 2002. In addition, it has completed its Latin America gateway expansion at Miami International Airport, where UPS is the largest air cargo carrier. UPS also plans to double the sorting capacity of its Europe air hub in Cologne/Bonn, Germany.
