German inter-modal transport terminal completed
Work has been completed in converting Rostock intermodal transport terminal south of pier one by The Port Development Company in cooperation with the regional subsidiary of STRABAG AG and Kocks Krane. The work has been underway for over two years, since May 2012.
Apart from three additional tracks and the southern craneway girder, the entire southern handling areas were newly built. A total of €10 million was invested for this alone until the end of 2012. Construction of the northern craneway girder and the completion and assembly of the first gantry crane were finished in 2013.
Ulrich Bauermeister, Managing Director of Rostock Port Development Company, said: "The first crane was commissioned in December 2013. Now that the second crane has passed its acceptance tests the mobile handling technology may be phased out.
“The conversion has allowed us to double the handling capacity to more than 140,000 units per year"
The five tracks will be served by two new gantry cranes able to drive curves, each weighing 500 tonnes and with a height of 35 metres and a spread of 76.5 metres. The overall investment for the project amounted to €17 million.
The conversion of the intermodal transport terminal at the port of Rostock received 70 % subsidies from the Federal Railway Authority, supplemented by another €3.3 million of subsidies from the European Commission under the Motorways of the Sea project "Green Bridge on Nordic Corridor" (Trans-European Networks).
There are 35 weekly intermodal transport trains at the intermodal transport terminal, running to and from Verona, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Brno, Novara, Domodossola and Wels. The number of the trailer units handled increased from 64,255 in 2012 to 64,851 last year.
Bauermeister added: "We are very satisfied with this development especially against the background of months of building work at the intermodal transport terminal and various renovation and repair works on railway lines that are important for us. The port location of Rostock is now well prepared to cope with any increases in wheeled cargo”
This development work at Rostock has taken place amongst a backdrop of expected throughput growth in the Northern European ports in the Le Havre to Hamburg range this year. Imports from January to April handled increased by 4.9 percent over 2013, with a predicted full-year total of 14.47 million TEU, leading to a full-year gain of 5.5 percent in total TEU handled.
