Posted on March 23, 2021
Central handling facilities in the Port of Stralsund are now more accessible to shipping after the dredging of the east German Baltic facility’s eastern approach channel, reports Tom Todd.
The 94.86m x 17.02m hopper suction dredger Costa la Luz, owned by Dravo in Spain and part of the van Oord Group, was hired in to tackle the extensive three-month job which has cost €1.6 million. The co-ordinating authority has been the newly created WSA Ostsee, the locally based representative of the Germany government’s Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV).
A WSV spokeswoman told Maritime Journal the job involved the improvement of some 20 kms of the total 29kms long eastern approach channel – the Ostansteuerung. It runs from the Bay of Greifswald close to Poland to the east as far as the Ziegelgraben Bridge in central Stralsund, where the port’s most important facilities Stadthafen, Nordhafen, Südhafen and Frankenhafen are located.
The WSV said the aim had been to restore a channel width of at least 70m on a depth of 7.5m and the spokeswoman added: “these parameters are the prerequisites for safe and easy shipping in the Oststeuerung”.
Officials said that in the past few years the eastern channel had become increasingly silted up, endangering access to Stralsund for heavy cargo ships. Detailing the work, WSA Ostsee construction engineer Hannes Nehls explained that land slips on the flanks of the fairway had over the years lowered the profile and water depths making transit dangerous for vessels using guaranteed navigation charts.
The latest dredging work had deepened the channel and removed some 240,000m3 of sediment during three dredging project stages and in eight separate areas, they said.
As well as removing sediment, the versatile Costa la Luz also transported each individual 3,700m3 load of dredged material some 35kms to an approved deposition dumping site in the Baltic.
Port authorities said the expansion of facilities likely to benefit from increased handling as a result of projects like the Oststansteuerung would remain at the top of the agenda.
They declared: development will continue” as Stralsund co-operates on available sites with the local state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. And they noted the completion over the past few years of major future-oriented terminal projects such as the development of the Südhafen and Frankenhafen facilities.
