Page 10 - Port of Hamburg Magazine - 01.19

■ FUTURE PORT
Fairway adjustment to simplify Elbe traffic
Germany’s largest universal port possesses 75 terminals that handle 18,000 ocean-going ships and inland waterway craft per year. For the Elbe and port pilots, the 65 percent increase over the past decade in calls by ULVs – Ultra-Large Vessels – represents a challenge. Whereas not quite 600 ULVs berthed in Hamburg in 2008, meanwhile more than 1,000 do so annually.
These are vessels with a length of over 330 metres or a breadth of more than 45 metres. Along the 120-kilo- metre stretch of the Elbe between the mouth of the ri- ver and the Port of Hamburg boundary, they are sub- ject to numerous regulations that must be strictly observed. Jörg Pollmann, Hamburg’s Port Captain, is among those who feel that with a growing number of traffic situations needing to be regulated, maximum safety and most efficient use of the river are only at- tainable through prescient control of movement by all involved in the traffic. Further intensification of coope- ration between those responsible for traffic control in the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration, Hamburg Port Authority – HPA, Elbe and port pilots, along with the Hamburg Vessel Coordination Center - HVCC, will in future also embrace vessels and pilot sta- tions in the German Bight in mobile data interchange at an early stage. For Pollmann, port traffic that is increa- singly controlled digitally will ultimately create a ‘Port
Traffic Center’ providing data flow plus intelligent net- working of all transport carriers and traffic flows, while allowing for infrastructure and logistics movements.
PASSING BOX ENDS ONE-WAY TRAFFIC
On account of their widths, mega-containerships current- ly in service, as well as larger bulk carriers, must not en- counter each other between Glückstadt and the Port of Hamburg. To avoid the delays this causes for shipping, as part of fairway adjustment of the Lower and Outer Elbe the channel between Wedel and Blankenese is to be broadened to 385 metres. With a total length of seven ki- lometres and due for completion by the end of this year, the resultant ‘passing box’ between Wedel and Blanke- nese will substantially raise the capacity of the waterway. Long before completion of fairway adjustment, mathe- matically this part of the programme will allow an extra 2,800 mega-ships per year to reach the Port of Hamburg, or more than twice as many as at present.
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