Better accessibility for Rotterdam
The Port of Rotterdam will get more accessible
The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment is expanding the Maasgeul to prevent waiting times for ships entering the Port of Rotterdam improving efficiency.
This navigation channel to the North Sea is the access route for sea-going ships that have a draft of more than 14.3 metres - for which the numbers are ever increasing because of increasing load factors.
The Maasgeul is currently six miles long and 500 to 600 metres wide. It is being widened by another 240 metres so that by the summer of 2012, large sea-going ships will be able to pass each other.
Harbour master René de Vries talked about this increase in scale during a recent presentation of the nautical annual figures for Rotterdam in 2011. An increase in throughput (from 430 to 435 million tonnes) points to this increase in scale along with more heavily laden container ships.
Tie Schellekens, spokesperson at the Port of Rotterdam, said to GreenPort: "Thanks to the expansion of the Maasgeul a ship can pay a visit more efficiently. This shortens the average turn-around-time of the ship in Rotterdam."
During the presentation, Mr de Vries also explained that last year’s bad weather had an effect on safety at the Port of Rotterdam. The number of serious accidents in 2011 remained close to the same, but there was more bodywork damage (131 compared to 116).
Mr De Vries also touched on the case for more national and international legislation on the use of LNG as a fuel for both sea-going ships and inland shipping.
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