Rostock, Gedser build to combat fixed link threat

Scandlines is investing €230m in two 169m ferries on the Gedser-Rostock route and in expanding port handling in cooperation with local authorities.

New ferry facilities in Denmark’s Gedser are costing €43m and include a new terminal and check-in area. In Rostock ferry facilities are set for a complete revamp over the next two years. Both ports are also introducing city-terminal bus services dovetailed with departure times. The changes will mean hourly departures in future with four ships.

In Rostock a new ferry berth is being built up to April 2012 to handle the two new Scandline ferries. They are being built at the P+S Werften (the former Volkswerft) in Stralsund and will double both freight and passenger capacity on the Gedser-Rostock route.

‘The Port of Rostock has to adapt to this’, said Ulrich Bauermeiser, MD of Rostock’s port development firm HERO. He was speaking as Rostock handling showed recovery after being hit hard by the recession. He announced the new ferry berth in Hafenbecken A with two new ramps to cater for two level handling on the new ferries.

To cope with a complete vehicle flow every 15 minutes, six more hectares of vehicle parking is being added to the existing 25 hectares. A giant warehouse will be torn down and a new processing sector and ferry centre built.

The development will cost millions of Euros, exactly how much was not initially reported. It is being paid for by HERO, Scandlines and the German coastal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

It is the latest in a string of recent Rostock quayside developments costing €70m and including the expansion of Berths 37 and 1. Other current projects include the construction of a new Berth 2 for timber.

By Tom Todd