A NORTH-EAST city has beaten competition from ports around the country to provide the home for a congestion-busting ship.

Sunderland will be the base for Robert Wynn and Sons' Government-sponsored Terra Marique, which has been built with the help of an £8.5m grant and allows heavy loads to be carried on inland and coastal waterways.

Weather permitting, the vessel will arrive at the Port Of Sunderland tomorrow.

The port's general manager, Frank Major, said: "The decision to base the Terra Marique in Sunderland is a fantastic business coup for the port, and shows just how well we are regarded nationally for the facilities and expertise we can provide to our shipping customers.

"The Terra Marique is seen as playing a central part in the Government's transport policy, which will promote the transfer of large and heavy abnormal loads freight from our roads and on to ships suitable for coastal and inland waterways, of which the Terra Marique is one of a new generation."

It is hoped that maritime transport will lessen disruption and delay on roads from exceptionally heavy superloads, which travel at speeds as low as 5mph and can block two lanes of motorways.

About 400 abnormal loads go by road each year, but ships such as the Terra Marique will help cut disruption.